Fluxblog #402: Lana Del Rey/Father John Misty • Babyface • Erasure
Also, please come out for my DJ party in Brooklyn on 1/18!
Big news at the top! I will be DJing the NIGHT RIPPERS party with my friends Chris Wade, Molly O’Brien, and Ryan Antiart at the Elsewhere Loft in Brooklyn on January 18th! This will be my first time DJing in quite a while – the general idea of this party is connecting the dots on a few generations of “indie sleaze” and since I’m on 9:30-11 PM I intend to be very ruthless with dropping The Hits. This event is FREE, but you can RVSP here.
There’s no playlist this week – I’ve been in a serious rut in getting these together, a lot of half-formed ideas and nothing clicking. Hopefully I’ll have something fresh for you next week. It’s weird to have writers block but for playlists but that’s how it’s been.
The Girl I Knew
Lana Del Rey “Buddy’s Rendezvous”
I’m at Buddy’s Rendezvous
Telling the losers and old timers
How good I did with you
They almost believe me, too
I knew this song for the better part of a year before finding out that Buddy’s Rendezvous is a pizzeria in Michigan and not some miserable dive bar in Los Angeles as I had assumed given the context and the song already mentioning Canter’s, which is in LA. This detail changes the song for me. It’s funny but also amps up the pathos, picturing this guy chatting up some old guys eating pizza stings a lot more than if he’s just doing the same thing at a bar after his third well whiskey.
The other thing I didn’t quite pick up on for a while is that this isn’t about a failed romance but rather a song from the perspective of an absent father who’s been released from prison and is trying to reconnect with his daughter who has had some measure of success as a singer in Los Angeles. It’s not some big ironic switcheroo, as Father John Misty’s arrangement, lyrics, and vocal all play the scenario exactly the same as if it was addressed to a long-lost ex, which I don’t think is necessarily meant to be taken as some incestuous thing but more that his regret, lingering possessiveness, and nostalgic affection for her is probably not that different from a bunch of actual exes he could be singing about in other songs. He’s not reaching out because they have a genuine connection – he’s been out of the picture way too long for that – but because he needs her success to validate his existence. At least something good came from him being alive, and he wants to get as close to that feeling of having value as he can.
It was an inspired choice to have Lana Del Rey sing a version of this song. Lana Del Rey and Father John Misty, born only a few years apart, are kindred spirits as songwriters. Their music largely draws on mid 20th century sounds and archetypes but their lyrics are squarely focused on the present tense, and everything in their lyrics that look back to the past is presented with irony as it’s always from someone living in America’s decline reaching for something they think was probably better and more pure. They’re both bitter and damaged but mostly because as romantics they’re always setting themselves up for disappointment. They’re each other’s truest peer and so it’s a treat to hear her interpret one of his songs.
Lana’s presence changes the implied perspective – is this now Lana inhabiting the voice of the daughter, is this her impression of her father’s words? The way she plays it feels more like this is her father imagining his daughter singing his words, but in any case there’s some cold disconnection. It’s only just “her.” I think this might have worked better as a duet with Father John Misty singing the parts that she sings a little too low in her range. Her vocal performance is very good, particularly on the choruses, but I do get the sense that this song was a challenge for her, and the variations in her phrasing were made in large part to just stay in tune and not push her to an uncomfortably high register on the chorus. Misty shows up for backing vocals in the final third of the song and I love hearing them together, particularly as it sounds like he’s the one singing with a ghost, just trying to soothe himself with this idea of her.
Buy it from Amazon.
Better Than Words
Babyface “Whip Appeal”
Babyface’s chord structure in “Whip Appeal” is fairly sophisticated but the main trick of it is in gliding effortlessly between mostly minor chords in the verse to mostly major chords for the chorus. The minor chords don’t signal melancholy in this context, it’s more like moving between an unresolved or complicated feeling into something straightforwardly pleasurable and relaxing. The lyrics basically tell the story of the chords as Babyface sings about a love affair that’s a safe harbor from the stresses and boredoms of ordinary life. He describes this as “the strangest kind of relationship” because their communication is almost entirely sexual, but he’s not complaining. There’s no conflict in this song outside of what he imagines this situation might look like to other people, but he’s just confusing himself. He’s already got it figured out – this affection, this sex, this connection? That’s the important part of his days. Everything else is just filler time. His elation in this song isn’t just about who he’s singing about, it’s the joy and relief of being lucky enough to have this in his life.
Buy it from Amazon.
Before You Make A Fool Out Of Love
Erasure “Stop!”
“Stop!” is a song about being separated from the one you love, but the music isn’t even slightly melancholic in the way you’d expect with that subject matter. Vince Clarke’s arrangement is extremely bright, bubbly, and full of pep. It’s three minutes of undiluted joy and enthusiasm, with Andy Bell vowing that he and his partner will be reunited and then nothing will ever tear them apart. The energy of the song is in this defiance of circumstance, and in the anticipation of them being together again, which he takes to be a foregone conclusion. He’s basing everything on faith, which makes some contextual sense – given that this is a song by a gay artist in the late 80s, I think there’s a pretty good chance this is really about being separated by death. I’m not sure if Bell intended that – the lyrics nod more in the direction of something less morbid – but I’m sure plenty of his audience interpreted it that way in the moment.
Buy it from Amazon.
LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS
• Devon Ivie at Vulture had a great little conversation with Robert Plant about his career with Led Zeppelin and beyond.
• Ilana Kaplan at Alternative Press talked to Kay Hanley about her varied career with Letters to Cleo, writing music for TV and movies, and her solo work.
• Tom Breihan at Stereogum wrote a fantastic tribute to Gangsta Boo, who died suddenly this week at just 43.
• Nick Newman at The Film Stage talked to Will Menaker of Chapo Trap House about his favorite films of 2022 and the way of “movie mindset.” Some great stuff here!