Fluxblog Weekly #109: Chris Cornell, Nick Hakim, The Steoples, Post Malone, Bobo Swae
May 23rd, 2017
A Tear Falling To The Ground
Temple of the Dog “All Night Thing”
Grunge wasn’t a very sexy genre. This was somewhat by design, since the major artists involved were deliberately distancing themselves from the casual sexism and corny bro antics of the previous generation of mainstream hard rock acts. And besides that, these guys were all way more interested in singing about depression, trauma, grief, discontent with society, and general existential dread than anything else.
The major exception is Temple of the Dog’s “All Night Thing,” which stands as the sexiest and most romantic song in the grunge canon. It’s only grunge by default; there’s no guitars at all and it’s much closer in sound and sentiment to a Prince ballad than anything you’d reasonably associate with early ‘90s Seattle. Chris Cornell’s voice is the center of the song from the very start, as he opens with this perfectly vivid line – “she motioned to me that she wanted to leave” – that has him spinning off into various scenarios of what’s about to go down. The entire song is in a liminal space, and even if it’s fairly obvious that Cornell is about to hook up with this woman, he sings each line with such commitment that the anxiety and anticipation feels entirely authentic. The timbre of his voice is very post-metal, but the nuances of his performance comes closer to the hyper-emotive R&B of Otis Redding. This is part of what makes the song feel so romantic – it’s hard to imagine he’d be singing with this much feeling if he was just trying to get laid. “All Night Thing” sounds like the beginning of something special.
It’s worth nothing that “All Night Thing” is, in its low-key way, a song about consent. The entire drama of the song hinges on what she wants to do, and being totally OK with whatever she decides. You don’t get a lot of that these days.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 24th, 2017
Put Me To Sleep Forever And Ever
Nick Hakim “Bet She Looks Like You”
Nick Hakim’s vocal style is firmly rooted in R&B, but his music is very much in the same aesthetic mode as contemporary festival-circuit psychedelia – Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Living, maybe a touch of MGMT. As it turns out, that’s a very natural formula, and a stoned vibe just makes the vocal performance seem more plaintive and nostalgic. The reverb on this track is so wet that it sounds like Hakim is singing in a public bathroom and the guitar notes sound like they’re literally dripping out of a leaky faucet. It’s a bit much, production-wise, but the sound is immediately ear-grabbing and the emotion in his voice feels very raw and immediate.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 25th, 2017
May Love Reclaim Our Lives
The Steoples “From the Otherside”
“From the Otherside” sounds as though it’s suspended mid-air, but not quite floating. This effect mostly comes from that old The Field trick of a stuttering ambient sample that sounds just like a skipping CD, but is somehow soothing rather than jarring. There’s no solid floor to this track – the keyboards and vocals are just as weightless, and the only thing holding it together is the relatively tight structure of the vocal melody, which incidentally sounds like “Eleanor Ribgy” reworked as an R&B slow jam. The overall effect is lovely and sexy, but also vaguely ghostly and unnerving. The singer’s lyrics are all about the present or what’s to come, but the music and the tone of his voice suggest it’s fading or already gone.
Buy it from Stones Throw.
May 26th, 2017
From My Own Perspective
Post Malone featuring Justin Bieber “Deja Vu”
I was in a car in Los Angeles last week with my friend Daniel and he decided it was a good time for me to hear some Post Malone. For whatever reason, I just hadn’t listened to Post Malone. I had no preconceived notions or bias against the guy – all I knew was that he was a white rapper and fairly popular, and that I didn’t know of anyone who really cared about his music, so I didn’t feel compelled to seek it out. My immediate impression upon hearing a few tracks was that he sounded kinda like Future, but with more vulnerability in his voice.
Daniel hyped up “Deja Vu” before playing it for me, saying that it sounded like Stereolab, but with Justin Bieber as Laetitia Sadier. I am always wary of people saying things sound like Stereolab because publicists are always sending me things like “sounds like Stereolab!” when maybe, at most, there’s just a keyboard on it and not even a type of keyboard Tim Gane would own. (This is kinda weird thing for publicists to do since Stereolab is not actually a popular band and most writers under 35 are not familiar with their music.) But you know what? I totally get it. The central keyboard part in this song absolutely does sound like something that could’ve been on Dots and Loops, and Daniel is right that Bieber’s part would’ve sounded better he sang it in French. The rest of it is still much closer to stoned Future-esque rap, but it’s musically a lot more interesting and Post Malone’s voice is richer and more melancholy. Bieber sounds great too – unapologetically soft and feminine, and notably unguarded compared to other tracks where he’s trying hard to seem cool.
Buy it from Amazon.
Bobo Swae featuring Rae Sremmurd “Rowdy”
What a great example of making the most of two chords. “Rowdy” is in a state of musical stasis for nearly five minutes, but it still feels dynamic in the way these two bell tones seem to move slowly from left to right. Bobo Swae sounds drowsy on the beat, and he delivers his lines in a breathy, soft-spoken voice just shy of a full-on Ying Yang Twins “Wait” whisper. The members of Rae Sremmurd aren’t that much more energetic, but I like what they do here. Slim Jxmmi is a bit more aggressive, while Swae Lee’s voice is slow and stoned, but also playful in how he dodges some easy rhymes in favor of more flamboyant inflections. This is exactly what I like to hear in a posse track – a steady center supported verses that contrast nicely and complement each other.
Buy it from Amazon.