Fluxblog Weekly #48: A Giant Dog, Basia Bulat, Jessy Lanza, The Range
I published a quiz called What Percent Music Snob Are You? this week at BuzzFeed. It's an updated/revised version of one of my all-time most popular quizzes, which was originally a checklist but is now a weighted questionnaire. Meaning – if you answer in a way I don't like, you lose points. And if you get particular references or have done particular things, you gain points. Have fun.
March 21st, 2016
Let Me See The Future
A Giant Dog “Sex & Drugs”
I wonder if the hook to this song, in which the singer shouts “I can’t even remember being young!,” would’ve seemed defiant to me if I’d heard it a decade or so ago. Maybe it would’ve hit me as a cool line, but I don’t think it would’ve resonated as much. It feels genuinely rebellious to hear a rock band play a very fast and loud song about how conflating rock music with youth is total bullshit, and the mythology built around living fast and dying young is empty and dumb. “Sex & Drugs,” which is followed by an equally great up-tempo number called “& Rock & Roll,” is an earnest celebration of the fun side of rock, and I think for this band, a way of reclaiming it from everything in culture that’s made it seem tired and clichéd.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 22nd, 2016
You Have A Way To Forget
Basia Bulat “Long Goodbye”
“Long Goodbye” is a song about coming out of a relationship that you know wasn’t very good and still being angry about how it ended. How could they be so careless with your heart? How could they string you along for so long? How did you fall for any of it? You blame yourself for being blinded by love, and maybe that’s it. Basia Bulat sings this song with a steely, bitter tone, and the words are rather cutting. But as much as the lyrics are a string of recriminations ostensibly directed towards the ex, it’s clear that this isn’t for them at all. This isn’t for their ears; it’s all directed inward. It’s the story you need to tell yourself over and over so a narrative sticks, and you can write off a bit of the past and move on.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 23rd, 2016
Find My Love
Jessy Lanza “It Means I Love You”
There’s only three major elements to this arrangement – drum machine, keyboard, vocal – and while they’re all in sync, they vary quite a bit in urgency. Jessy Lanza’s vocal part is the most relaxed thing in the mix, with her sounding light and conversational, and only partly tethered to the tempo. The beat is considerably more busy and intense, and it’s the main structural element of the song in the way the guitar would provide the primary structure in a standard rock song. The keyboard parts bridge the gap between the two, roughly keeping with the tempo while complementing the loose, slightly detached vibe of the vocal. I like the way this all comes together in the context of Lanza’s lyrics – she’s singing about the earliest stages falling in love and while her tone is casual and playful, the percussion implies a nervous energy that’s driving the feeling but is tactfully being kept under the surface.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 24th, 2016
My Life With You
The Range “Superimpose”
James Hinton pulled all the vocals on The Range’s new album Potential from videos of amateur performers on YouTube. It’s a great conceptual hook, and certainly gives a writer plenty of room to riff on, like, technology maaaan and we’re all connected all the time now and social mediiiiiiaaaa and what it’s DOING TO US ALLLLLLLLL. But I do not care about any of that. The most interesting thing about Potential is Hinton’s craft in building these scraps of audio into fully realized pop songs. “Superimpose” is particularly beautiful, with this earnest R&B vocal echoing in the space between clicking beats and looping piano notes. It doesn’t feel like the result of a high concept art project. The vocal is all raw emotion and Hinton just frames it.
In a way, this is like the reverse of Disclosure’s second album, in which all the collaborations seem mandated by corporate synergy. It’s also a record that feels very sociable, like two young guys eager to interact with all these singers. On the other hand, Potential sounds very much like something made in solitude, and the vocal parts always retain a lo-fi quality that reminds us that it’s all just pulled from a video. He’s using these strangers as emotional proxies in the songs, but that’s what we’re always doing as listeners, right?
Buy it from Amazon.