Fluxblog Weekly #183: The Concretes, The Supremes, Yo La Tengo, Thom Yorke
If you are a Spotify user, I have two new public playlists that you can check out. All the Sluts and the Saints is a glittery disco-centric mix, and The After Train Ride Quiet is a mix intended to be heard at night. I have been inspired to experiment with short, conceptually focused playlists by Abbey Bender's brilliant Haunted Strip Club mix, which I HIGHLY recommend.
October 21st, 2018
A Love Hangover
The Concretes “Diana Ross”
Victoria Bergsman sings “Diana Ross” with a drowsy, uncertain tone that’s very far removed from the bold, hyper-confident voice of the song’s namesake. But she knows that, and this isn’t emulation so much as a tribute, or an attempt to connect with a strength and power beyond what you believe you’re capable of. In most cases, this is the actual utility of pop music – it’s a proxy, and a way to understand or channel our feelings into something more beautiful or elegant. Bergsman is referencing “Love Hangover” in particular, which has a smooth, sensual quality that’s quite different from the slightly awkward staccato beat and wobbly sax of this song. But as much as insecurity manifests itself in the music, it also sounds like a shy person speaking up and reaching out. Bergsman gives the chorus everything she’s got, and for me, hearing her sing out with such overwhelming sincerity is more moving than most Ross performances.
That chorus though. “I didn’t know what I feared, but I do know what I feel.” Boy, do I ever know how you feel there, Victoria. She sings it like she’s surprising herself, like she’s only just now understanding how fear can put you out of touch with reality. But feelings? Feelings are usually the truth. Hearing Bergsman repeat “I do know what I feel” at the end of the song gets me in the gut. She’s realizing something, and getting strength from it. Maybe Diana Ross is what brought her to that epiphany, but I don’t really think so.
Buy it from Amazon.
October 23rd, 2018
These Precious Words
The Supremes “You Can’t Hurry Love”
The waiting is agony. You see everyone else get the love you want, but it’s somehow so elusive for you. It’s like playing a game rigged against you, and you start to resent it. Maybe you just give up. Maybe you decide love is for everyone but you, and that the best you could hope for is to settle. But you’ve got to listen to the advice of the mother in this song, one of the finest pieces of music ever composed in the United States: You can’t hurry love, you just have to wait. Love don’t come easy.
This is the last thing you want to hear when you feel lost and desperate and lonely, though. And this was a song intended for a young audience – you have no perspective on time when you’re a teenager, or even in your 20s! Diana Ross and the Supremes sing this song with the urgency of a lovesick teen and the unwavering faith of a true believer, anchored by what I consider to be the most exquisitely boppy beat Motown ever produced. “You Can’t Hurry Love” may be secular, but it’s about faith and holding out hope for some divine plan and purpose. The song cycles through melancholy, exasperation, desperation, and hope before landing on a final verse that sounds far more at ease and resolute than the rest of the song. That’s the part – “keep on waiting, anticipating for that soft voice to talk to me at night” – that sounds like a prayer. It’s the part where they truly know this mother’s wisdom is the truth.
Buy it from Amazon.
October 24th, 2018
It’s Not An Impossible Thing To Do
Yo La Tengo “Winter A-Go-Go”
“Winter A-Go-Go” is sung from the perspective of someone who is very concerned about a friend who seems to be lost and depressed, but knows there’s not much she can really do other than show them support. This is a perfect song for Georgia Hubley’s singing voice – extremely low key and unassuming, but exceptionally warm and empathetic. The song is an expression of kindness, but also of frustration at how powerless she is to fix the situation beyond being loving and supportive. As the title implies, the sound of the music evokes the beach on the off season, with traces of summery sounds muted by chilly and overcast tones. This is a fairly obscure Yo La Tengo song, but I think it’s one of their best composed pieces of music – Ira Kaplan’s organ solo is particularly inspired, and seems to open up the emotional range of the song before it narrows back down for the final round of the chorus, in which Hubley just seems to shrug: “It’s not an impossible thing to do / I know there’s a better life for you / I can’t keep from wondering.”
Buy it from Amazon.
October 27th, 2018
The Water Turned Grey
Thom Yorke “Has Ended”
“Has Ended” is about as optimistic as Them Yorke gets – a fantasy about the Western world suddenly snapping out of its drive towards fascism set to music that sounds like a gradually fading hangover. He imagines exploding phones, the forgiveness of the planet itself, and most unrealistically, the fascists feeling any sort of shame. It’s a nice thought, but it says a lot that Yorke can only express it in music that still sounds so bleak and downtrodden. But this is when you have these ideas, right? When you’re so broken the only thing you can do is to imagine being miraculously repaired.
Buy it from Amazon.