Fluxblog Weekly #18: Low, Jimmy Whispers, Miley Cyrus, Animal Collective, PWR BTTM
I can't write about this new Chvrches record for a little bit, but in the meantime, please go listen to this live performance of the song "Clearest Blue." It is really good.
August 31st, 2015
Some Way To Reach The Other Side
Low “What Part of Me”
This is a very adult sort of pop song, and it calls back to an era in which adult contemporary pop was also mainstream pop, and not totally synonymous with sentimental bombast. “What Part of Me” reminds me specifically of the more mellow and restrained Phil Collins/Genesis hits, which framed very warm melodies in cold synths and tense electronic percussion, and were generally about people in long term relationships trying to solve emotional conflicts with honest communication. Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker sing the song in parallel harmony but rarely fully overlap, which is perfect for a song in which they’re kinda looking just past each other and wondering “what part of me don’t you know?” and trying to figure out what it’d take to realign perfectly. The arrangement hits just the right balance of airiness and rhythmic tension, indicating conflict but nothing particularly intense. My favorite detail here is the low feedback buzz that almost subliminally lingers in the background of parts of the track, like some strange feeling that’s not fully formed enough to articulate or understand.
Buy it from Amazon.
September 1st, 2015
Change The Feeling, Goddammit
Jimmy Whispers “I Get Lost in You in the Summertime”
The past few waves of “lo-fi” music left me cold because it was mostly just a bunch of shitty bands using bad sound to mask their considerable deficiencies and have some sort of hook for lazy music writers. This track is a very different thing, and closer to where Lou Barlow was in the mid-‘90s with Folk Implosion – the sound isn’t bad, but the looseness of the recording highlights a feeling of “let’s just get this on to tape right away.” Jimmy Whispers really makes you feel as though you’re in a little room with him, where he’s bitching about wanting to “change the fucking feeling,” and then plays a sad little song on the organ for you, and maybe he’s making up half the words on the spot. That “in-the-moment” quality suits this particular song very well; that organ drone and sad melody end up feeling like a present tense that seems to extend deep into the horizon. No wonder he’s so anxious to change the feeling.
Buy it from Amazon.
September 2nd, 2015
There’s Probably A Rainbow But I Don’t Care
Miley Cyrus “Space Boots”
Miley Cyrus’ new record is a long slog, but it’s at least an interesting slog. And given that she made it with The Flaming Lips and Mike Will Made It, two contrasting creative forces I think would be rather overpowering in most cases, it’s remarkable that Cyrus pushed them both towards a very specific unifying aesthetic focused on thin, hazy synth drones and crisply snapping beats. I think Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s take on the record is pretty right on – this album is the musical equivalent of watching someone else trip balls rather that something that takes you on a psychedelic journey, and there are stretches of the record where it does “feel like you’re the designated driver at an endless party that you can never leave.” But it’s kinda worth it for the tracks that really come together, like “I Forgive Yiew,” “Fweaky,” and “Space Boots.” The latter is just a really lovely ballad, and its stoned quality enhances its sentiment, and her eagerness to be aggressively WEIIIIRD roots it in very peculiar specifics. If the record is full of songs where you feel like you’re just indulging a self-absorbed friend, a song like “Space Boots” is the kind of thing that reminds you why you’re friends in the first place.
Get it from Miley Cyrus’ official site.
September 3rd, 2015
When The Point Of Horizon Is Hiding From You
Animal Collective “What Would I Want? Sky (Live 2013)”
It was a good idea for Animal Collective to release an official document of their 2013 tour, if just to show off what a good live band they had become at that point in time. This was the first time in their career where they really figured out how to blend live and pre-recorded/electronic elements seamlessly into their performances, and how to present their best-known songs in a way that was satisfyingly faithful to the original recordings without entirely sacrificing the semi-improvisational elements that had been key to their live shows up to this point. I think this came out of a new professionalism that came in the wake of the success of Merriweather Post Pavilion, but also just an increasing confidence in their technical skills and a desire to show off the more disciplined structures of their more recent songwriting. You really get the best of all that in this version of “What Would I Want? Sky,” as it follows the same pattern as the studio version from dramatic ambience to tightly composed pop song, but there’s a wild energy to the performance that brings out the life in both sections.
Buy it from Domino.
September 4th, 2015
We Can Be Nice Or We Can Be Mean
PWR BTTM “Dairy Queen”
I felt compelled to mention this when I wrote about Diet Cig, and I feel like I have to reiterate it here in writing about PWR BTTM: It is amazing to me that I have been writing this site since 2002 and I can probably (still) count on one hand the times I’ve featured bands from the Hudson Valley, which is where I’m from. It’s crazy that all of a sudden there’s a music scene forming in the area where I grew up – where the hell was all this when I was a kid?? – but also totally logical in that it’s a place very close to New York City where young musicians can live a lot cheaper and have a lot more practice space and generally have this sort of suburban-bohemian lifestyle. More bands should move there.
PWR BTTM are a joyful and openly queer rock band, but carry themselves in this very ‘90s casual indie boy sort of way. It’s an interesting balance, for sure. “Dairy Queen” is a very suburban rock song, both in vibe – that clinky metallic riff just feels like being in a shitty car driving to nowhere in particular to me – and in sentiment, which is mostly about fantasizing about doing super cool things and settling for making your own fun. It ma be a song about living with compromises and practical concerns, but it’s not hung up on that stuff. It’s more about really throwing yourself into the sorts of fun you get to have, and that’s usually a lot more satisfying.
Buy it from Amazon.