Fluxblog Weekly #224: Alessia Cara, The Quiet Temple, Poppy, Sleater-Kinney
August 12th, 2019
The Elephant In Every Room
Alessia Cara “Rooting for You”
“Rooting for You” comes from a remarkably healthy place, in emotional terms: Smart enough to know when it’s time to cut a toxic friend out of one’s life, but kind and generous enough to not be especially angry or dramatic about it. Alessia Cara sings no-nonsense lyrics with a lot of warmth, and focuses on a feeling of disappointment when her friend’s issues get in the way of honest communication. The tune has a sunny lightness to it and nods in the direction of a ska groove without fully committing to the genre. The song doesn’t fit into any particular genre, really – it’s that sort of mutt pop that’s a bit of everything and produced with a gloss that makes it difficult to peg down to a particular year. This could be 1998, it could be 2003, it could be 2008, it could be any time since then. As such, it gets to have a vaguely nostalgic feeling about it without recalling any time in particular or feeling at all dated.
Buy it from Amazon.
August 13th, 2019 5:19pm
Complexity Should Be Your Excuse For Inaction
The Quiet Temple “Shades of Gemini”
The Quiet Temple draw on a lot of psychedelic, jazz, and film music influences but my major reference point for this particular song is Herbie Hancock’s Sextant record from 1973. Hancock’s songs are little more sophisticated but there’s a similar sort of sinister cosmic funk feeling to the music, and a sort of lurch to the groove that makes the entire composition seem tilted or drunken. “Shades of Gemini” leans more on psychedelic rock as it moves towards its climax, building to a heavy crescendo that delivers a musical payoff a bit closer to the realm of Godspeed You Black Emperor.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
August 15th, 2019
Blood On My Clothes
Poppy “Voicemail”
Two years ago Poppy was largely a meta deadpan art project largely spun out of the stranger and more surreal bits of YouTube subcultures. These days Poppy has taken a darker turn, but one that still in many ways mirrors trends in both music and visual art. It’s all very post-Billie Eilish now, with more of an emphasis on a goth-y industrial sort of pop minimalism. The satire of the earlier work is still in there, but dialed down to the point where it can function just as well as fully sincere music. “Voicemail” sets up a dark mood with self-consciously scary lyrics, but winks at us with odd lyrical turns – “I called up the police, their voicemail was full,” “Poppy is your mommy, Poppy is your mommy,” and a bit about feeling embarrassed randomly sung in Japanese. These odd bits only emphasizes the overall uncanny creepiness of the song.
Buy it from Amazon.
August 15th, 2019
Can’t Find The Thrill Anymore
Sleater-Kinney “Can I Go On”
I don’t have a problem with Sleater-Kinney trying new things, since trying new things have served them well in the past. But it’s funny how “new things” is a very relative notion. Sleater-Kinney are indeed experimenting with “new things” on their 9th album The Center Won’t Hold, but to my ears, it mostly sounds like musical ideas that have been cycled through and chewed up by many lesser bands over the course of their existence. The elements of these songs that sound fresh and vital are the types of melodies and dynamics that have been with Sleater-Kinney all along, and the bits that feel “new” or at least unlike classic S-K sound a lot like drab major label radio rock from the past decade or so. In some cases, like “Ruins” or “Bad Dance,” the production moves work for the songs, albeit in a vaguely cheesy way – you know, like how if you wear certain clothes it will look more like a costume on you than an outfit? On other songs, like “Reach Out,” you get fabulous verses that are weighed down by an uninspired chorus that sounds too much like the bland hooks churned out by pro songwriters to blend in with the overall dynamics of contemporary radio.
Of all the new songs, “Can I Go On” is the one that best connects the particular spirit of classic S-K to a glossier studio aesthetic. It’s fairly light and boppy, and with its tone and processing, it comes out sounding a bit like a song that could’ve been used in an Apple iPod ad circa the mid 2000s. (You know, back when they were busy splitting the planet in half on The Woods.) Carrie Brownstein’s voice is bright and enthusiastic as she sings about feeling grim and drained, approaching the album’s theme of crushed hope and disconnection from a more personal and low-key perspective. It’s a song that answers is its own questions in music as they are expressed in lyrics – she sings “maybe I’m not sure I wanna go on,” but her voice and the energy behind the music make it clear that she very much is, despite it all.
Buy it from Amazon.