Fluxblog Weekly #240: Olivia Lane • Scott & Charlene's Wedding • Molly Burch • Cheeze
As I mentioned in the newsletter last week, I recently set up a Ko-Fi page for Fluxblog where you can donate whatever you like to support the site – which is literally just me, a person without a full time job at the moment. Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who has donated already – it's been a huge help that's relieved some stress doing into a tricky time of the year.
December 2nd, 2019
Working That Pearl Snap Shirt
Olivia Lane “So Good It Hurts”
“So Good It Hurts” is a country rock song that opens with an unexpected cold and brutal sound, not far off from the BDSM cyborg vibes of Goldfrapp in electro-glam mode. It’s a strange contrast with the rest of the song, which isn’t far off from Shania Twain at her most pop, but it doesn’t clash either. It just sets up an unusual tightness in the verses that makes the more traditional by-the-book chorus feel more jubilant. The whole song is just Olivia James singing about how hot her boyfriend is, so in that context it’s like the verses are all horny tension and the chorus is ecstatic gratitude for being blessed with this rugged but well-dressed country hunk. The details are specific enough to make anyone outside of the country cultural bubble go “uh, really, that’s what you’re into?” but it’s all very endearing and good-natured.
Buy it from Amazon.
December 4th, 2019
I Just Read It Again
Scott & Charlene’s Wedding “Back in the Corner”
I like to imagine interviewing this band and casually mentioning Lou Reed and the main guy looking blankly at me like, “who is that?” It is entirely impossible to imagine that this guy is anything other than a Lou Reed obsessive who has decided to make his own Lou Reed songs. I suppose this will come off as insulting or as faint praise, but this is an exceptionally good fake Lou Reed song, something that would’ve fit in very nicely on any of the Velvet Underground records. The rhythm, the lyrical detail, the specific vocal tone – it’s all very Peak Lou in a way that doesn’t seem remotely accidental. I’m in awe of how well this guy nails it. The craft and precision is so strong you could absolutely trick someone into believing this is a Loaded outtake.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
December 5th, 2019
Joy To The World, But It’s Gonna Be Sad For Me
Molly Burch “What Do the Lonely Do At Christmas?”
I was not familiar with song – which was previously recorded by The Emotions and Patti LaBelle – before hearing Molly Burch’s new recording of it for her Christmas album, but it hit me immediately in the gut. Burch’s arrangement is a slightly jazzier take on the Emotions’ version, but retains a very specific early ‘70s sort of melancholy. It’s a very graceful and dignified sort of sadness, the sort of seasonal misery that would be dressed up in a beautiful peacoat. The lyrics hit very close to home for me now as someone whose family is no longer nearby and doesn’t have default company for the holidays. It’s an awkward position to be in, but at least I have this and the original recording as a way to really play up the lonely Christmas vibes.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
December 6th, 2019
When I Look Into Your Eyes
Cheeze “우린 어디에나 (We’re Everywhere)”
“We’re Everywhere” is a ballad with a sophisticated R&B gloss that conveys a very heightened sense of romanticism – it’s very “we’re in a movie, and this part is so perfect it makes me cry.” It sounds like a perfect vision of love, but the English translation of the Korean lyrics reveals some interesting contextual details: She’s mostly singing about feeling awkward and anxious with someone, and is very fixated on the smallness of her body. It’s as much about being in love as it is about feeling insignificant and shy – not necessarily contradictory things, but something that complicates the sweetness and purity of this music.
Buy it from Amazon.