Fluxblog Weekly #156: Eleanor Friedberger, Sibille Attar, Okkervil River, Karen Meat, Haley
April 16th, 2018
It’s Not About Being Pretty
Eleanor Friedberger “Make Me A Song”
Eleanor Friedberger’s fourth album Rebound is the first of her solo records to feel completely removed from the singular aesthetic of The Fiery Furnaces. The esoteric humor, the odd approach to narrative, the strange cadences and restless tempos, the impulse to pack songs with as many ideas as possible – that’s all gone. The Eleanor of 2018 favors a more relaxed vibe and significantly more straightforward lyrics. The songs have a more spacious, airy sound, and her voice – always so certain and decisive in tone – now conveys the humble curiosity of a spiritual seeker.
This is a dramatic creative shift, and I know some of my friends who were never huge Furnaces fans have connected with this record. And that makes sense: Anything that could have ever annoyed people about her old material is missing from what she’s doing now, and it’s pretty easy to like the mellow, groovy vibe of this record. But for me, it’s a bit more complicated. I appreciate and enjoy where she’s at with this music, but I can’t help but focus on the lack of the aspects of her work that I find the most exciting and intriguing.
She’s still great with melody. “Make Me A Song” is a gentle, jaunty number with an understated hook – “I could love you more” – that’s sweet but slightly ambiguous in context. This is essentially a song reflecting on other people’s faith and passions, and searching for a similar inspiration. And though she seems to lack direction, the music itself conveys a sense of peace and self-acceptance that suggest she doesn’t have to look far to find what she might already have.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 17th, 2018
Do You Believe This Is Easy To Do?
Sibille Attar “I Don’t Have To”
“I Don’t Have To” is a bittersweet breakup song that starts off with a splashy, funky drum into that suggests the arrival of a more lighthearted and groovy tune. The direction of the song shifts a bit but the percussion is consistently bold and high up in the mix – it’s as expressive as it is functional. As Sibille Attar sings about deciding to break off a relationship, the drums push her to be firm and assertive. The drums are loud and crisp, but also sorta wild and loose, which highlights the uncertainty in her voice. There’s an “it’s now or never” urgency to this track, and when she belts out the title phrase, she sounds like someone who is confronting and overcoming a terrifying obstacle.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 18th, 2018
There Was Something Wrong With Me
Okkervil River “Famous Tracheotomies”
I think it’s a human impulse to look for commonalities between ourselves and other people, especially people we don’t really know. I’m very aware of every celebrity born in the same year as myself – Claire Danes, Aaliyah, Chris Pratt, Robyn, Heath Ledger, Aaron Paul, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Vincent Kartheiser, Norah Jones, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish – and of people who grew up in the Hudson Valley, and celebrities who are Leos, and anyone who was blogging in the early to mid ’00s. In “Famous Tracheotomies,” Will Sheff focuses on other celebrities who had tracheotomies when they were infants. It’s like he’s trying to make sense of this formative trauma, and figure out whether there’s more to this connection than just happenstance. That’s what this impulse really is, right? Trying to make sense of something that’s ultimately quite random. He’s looking at Gary Coleman, Dylan Thomas, Mary Wells, and Ray Davies and trying to figure out whether this life-or-death ordeal was as meaningful to them as it was to him.
Sheff’s lyrics are direct and plainspoken, and his voice is fragile but not melodramatic. There’s an immediate intimacy to this song, like you’re just there with him as he’s telling you something incredibly personal and it just happens to be set to music. The song gets a bit more groovy and gathers momentum, but the tone remains conversational up to the point it drifts off from Ray Davies’ story into quoting The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset.” I think that move could be cheap in some cases, but here it’s quite beautiful. It’s a moment where it doesn’t matter if there’s truly some greater significance to this random connection, it only matters that Sheff is finding inspiration in it.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 20th, 2018
Old Realities
Karen Meat “Overdwelled”
“Overdwelled” is an unusual sort of breakup song: It’s not particularly sad or angry, and mostly fixates on humiliation and embarrassment. The lyrics are part cringe humor, part coping with failure and pain by finding a way to laugh at it. Karen Meat’s whole record is based on this sort of proud vulnerability and radical candor, but filtered through a wry and self-deprecating sense of humor. And while I’m typing out a lot of words that signal something deeper and darker, the main vibe of this music is fun. Arin Eaton’s voice has a playful drawl that adds an extra layer of charm to her immediately catchy melodies, and the arrangements are bright, bold, and ever-shifting. There are legitimately surprising turns in their songs. In the case of this one, it’s the faux-jazz lead piano part that comes out of nowhere to accent the second half of the fourth verse. It’s a great balance of strong pop craft and random “hey, what if we do this!!!” impulsiveness.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 20th, 2018
When The Words Are Gone
Haley “Bratt”
“Bratt” flies by in just over two minutes, a plaintive ballad accelerated by a very late ’90s sort of drum loop. The percussion sounds so huge that the atmosphere created by the keyboard and guitar parts feels like it’s happening inside of the rhythm, contained within and echoing off of walls implied by the snare hits. Haley’s voice is in there too, high enough to cut through the treble and gentle enough to signal confusion and vulnerability. The lyrics suggest a messy, questionable relationship with someone with substance abuse issues, but also a real affection and commitment to that person. It’s clear enough to get across the idea, but ambiguous enough that some lines come off as vaguely sinister.
Buy it from Bandcamp.