Fluxblog Weekly #226: Black Party, That Dog, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Charlotte Adigéry
August 26th, 2019
Piece This Together
Black Party featuring Anajah “4AM in NY”
“4AM in NY” unfolds as if it is bracketed by ellipses on both sides, a formless melancholy state that seems infinite in the moment. The guitar tone is sleepy and the groove is gentle and low-key, but the lyrics sung by both Anajah and Malik Flint are restless and angsty. The song sounds like a breakup scenario split between two perspectives, which each not fully understanding how invested the other is in the relationship. Anajah is tearing herself apart trying to get a handle on why her love feels so unrequited, but comes to a conclusion that she’s done with it on the chorus hook. Flint, on the other hand, is just as attached but can’t seem to stop sabotaging the relationship out of insecurity and fear. The song plays out like watching them both in real time in split screen, highlighting the irony of their feelings, but also showing us exactly why these two can’t get on the same page emotionally despite their affection for one another.
Buy it from Amazon.
August 27th, 2019
Take It From The Top
That Dog “If You Just Didn’t Do It”
Anna Waronker’s voice has a very “90s cool girl” quality – exceptionally good for conveying sarcasm, low-key bitterness, and carefully guarded sincerity. That all comes to play in “If You Just Didn’t Do It,” her first song as the singer of That Dog in over two decades. The band’s particular aesthetic of raw alt-rock dynamics contrasted with delicate flourishes mostly contributed by Petra Haden hasn’t changed, but Waronker’s lyrical perspective has shifted somewhat. This song is nothing but tough love, and it opens with her explaining that this is basically a message to someone to whom the best way of getting through to them is through a song. She’s not pulling any punches here – she’s not outright attacking them or calling them a toxic person, but she is making it clear that their self-destructive impulses have made them impossible to be around. The song hits its main point with blunt force: “If you just didn’t do it, then you wouldn’t do it, and you wouldn’t be here right now.” It’s not sensitive, but sometimes the only rhetorical trick that works is a tautology.
Buy it from Amazon.
August 28th, 2019
Can You Hear Your Angel Sing?
Beverly Glenn-Copeland “In the Image”
“In the Image” is a piece of music that overflows with empathy and love, and that’s even before you listen to what Beverly Glenn-Copeland is singing over that “Apache” beat. There’s a sort of gently audio glow to this song, like West Coast golden hour light dimming slowly at sunset. Glenn-Copeland’s voice has a calm and loving tone, and nearly every line she sings is either enticing the listener to dance or to accept some life-affirming thought. None of it comes across as a hollow platitude – she sounds grounded in the reality of the world, and her generosity of spirit is entirely sincere. It’s not quite emphatic enough to signal gospel music, but it’s reaching for the same feelings and message. It’s just a bit more blissful and zen.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
August 30th, 2019
I Beg For More
Charlotte Adigéry “Cursed and Cussed”
“Cursed and Cussed” is built on a looped breakbeat that sounds very early ‘90s, the sort of rhythm that drew a line straight through rap, new jack swing, and rave and then filtered into crossover pop in the liminal phase before gangsta rap and grunge shifted the direction of mainstream music. Charlotte Adigéry’s vocal is understated in tone but her lyrics are overtly filthy, sketching out BDSM scenes and repeating “God punishes, I beg for more” on the hook. The funniest bits of the song are when Adigéry jokingly self-censors, as when she stops the word “gloryhole” midway through to sing “hold that thought, climax control.” Adigéry sets a kinky scene, but makes it sexier by giving the audience a little wink.
Buy it from Amazon.