Fluxblog #404: Eaves Wilder • US Girls • Fever Ray • Yaeji
Plus a rebooted version of FluxCaviar for 2023
There is no proper new playlist this week but I want to remind you all that I’ve rebooted FLUXCAVIAR, my regularly updated Spotify playlist collecting new music I like as it is released (or as I stumble upon it) through the year, for 2023. There’s already a very substantial amount of music just from the past three weeks! If you were already subscribed to this playlist you’re still subscribed but if you haven’t yet this is a good way to keep up things on a week to week basis. I tend to write about most of the songs that I put in this playlist, but the volume these days is definitely beyond my capability to cover them all. Sorry, this is only on Spotify – it’s far too much of a hassle to update this on multiple platforms.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the NIGHT RIPPERS party at Elsewhere Loft I DJ’d with Molly O’Brien, Chris Wade, and Ryan AntiArt on Wednesday! We had an incredible turnout for a weeknight and we’ll hopefully do it again soon. I will post a recording of my DJ set on the Fluxblog Patreon this weekend. If you donate (or have recently donated) to Fluxblog on Ko-Fi please hit me up if you would like to get sent a copy of the set!
Until It Happens To Them
Eaves Wilder “I Stole Your Jumper”
“I Stole Your Jumper” is so generous with melodies and sharp in its dynamics that it comes out sounding like a series of escalating hooks with only just a little bit of connective tissue. Eaves Wilder’s lyrics follow a melodic thread that weaves through the chords, starting out by laying out an airtight case for why she’s broken up with someone, but once the song picks up momentum she’s tearing them apart and fantasizing about them being humiliated. The song indulges in a lot of presumably well-earned bitterness and anger, but she brings it down to earth by telling us the only revenge they’ve had – besides writing this song – was stealing one of their sweaters. It’s definitely a petty thing to do, but in the context of these lyrics it’s something that self-effacingly shows us the limits of her rage IRL, but also lets us know that she’s not quite as vicious as she’s letting on.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Goodbye History
U.S. Girls “Futures Bet”
People saying that they don’t want to have children because of how bleak the future seems to them is a cliché these days, usually expressed with an off-the-rack Millennial internet quip like “gestures wildy at everything.” “Futures Bet” is something of a rejoinder to that mindset, a song that’s dubious of human extinction occurring on any conceivable timeline and reckons that humans in any period will be hazy on the past but always searching for some reason why they’re here. Remy shrugs this off in the chorus – “this is just life.” I’m inclined to side with this point of view, particularly as the most hysterical scorched earth visions of the future come from people who’d somehow been led to believe that they would live an entire lifetime in a world without tumult and catastrophes. That’s not life! Remy sings her lyrics in a warm and soothing tone with the pleasant inflections of 80s pop. She sounds reassuring, but she’s not trying to delude anyone. She’s just trying to remind you, us, her kids, whoever, that there is usually a balance of happiness and pain through life in any historical moment.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
The Other Side Of Hyper Focus
Fever Ray “Carbon Dioxide”
Karin Dreijer has one of the most distinct and fascinating voices I’ve encountered, and that’s before even factoring in their frequent use of effects to warp and disguise it. But even when pushed to the most perverse extremes Dreijer is always recognizable, mainly for their particular cadences and inflections. They don’t even need digital processing to sound odd and uncanny, but it’s a big part of Dreijer’s art in The Knife and Fever Ray – it’s an audio version of masks, costumes, inhabiting characters. “Carbon Dioxide” is a relatively straight forward dance pop number that doesn’t get too wild with vocal manipulation but it still clicks in large part because Dreijer’s base timbre feels so alien and uncanny. The lyrics position infatuation and lust as something a little uncomfortable and grotesque, but in a way that only makes it hotter. It’s about an attraction that’s visceral and shameless, a situation where the line “hold my heart while falling” hits as both an expression of overpowering emotion but also a literal gory fantasy.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
How It Got To Be So Good
Yaeji “For Granted”
Most of Yaeji’s music thus far has been in the mode of house music so it’s interesting to hear her pivot into more of a pop direction, albeit a version of pop that’s very much on her own terms and not far removed from her established aesthetics. “For Granted” is more of an R&B song with an emphasis on groove and melody rather than beat, with production choices that keep the music feeling a little bit skewed and fluttery without getting in the way of her two main vocal hooks. The music sets up a rather pensive vibe and her lyrics follow that feeling by meditating on gratitude – is she appreciating what she has now, is she being thankful to those who help her, is she having a good time? I tend to think that if you’re having these thoughts often, the answer to those questions are probably more often yes than no.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS
• Chris Deville wrote a cool piece for Stereogum about A$AP Rocky’s outstanding debut Long Live A$AP on its 10th anniversary. Coincidentally I have been listening to songs from this record very frequently recently; the record has some of my favorite rap production of the past decade.
• Christopher Weingarten wrote a very interesting and unexpected review for Pitchfork’s Sunday Review series - a mail-order compilation of pop crossover rap called Monsters of Rap.
• The Comics Journal has a nice long interview with Peter Milligan, a comics writer I’ve been fascinated by since the early 90s. Milligan can be frustratingly hit or miss, but when he’s in the zone he’s on par with his direct contemporaries Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman.