Fluxblog Weekly #57: Speedy Ortiz, Anohni, Alexis Taylor, Wolf Parade
May 25th, 2016
You Still Don’t Know About Love
Speedy Ortiz “Emma O”
It’s a little strange to me that Speedy Ortiz would choose to put “Emma O,” a major step forward in their evolution as a band, as a song on a stopgap EP connected to their previous album along with a couple remixes. But hey, this song reminds me a lot of the sort of gorgeous and melancholy songs that Stephen Malkmus would write in the early ‘90s and decide to relegate to b-side/rarity status in the Pavement discography. Sadie Dupuis’ melodies on “Emma O” are the loveliest she’s written, and she performs the song with a vulnerability that’s striking in the context of her other music, which has been a lot more guarded or obscured with irony or oblique wordplay. She’s singing about a close relationship that’s gone cold and dead, but trying to hold on to it somehow even if it’s exhausting and painful. She seems like she’s almost ready to give up on an intellectual level, but the music betrays all that by expressing a fragility and sentimentality that overrides everything else.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 25th, 2016
Sometimes A Feeling Is Reason Enough
Anohni “Execution”
The far left politics of Anohni’s Hopelessness isn’t merely “on the nose.” It is a full-scale attack on the nose, and by the time the record is over, there is just a pile of pulp and rubble where the nose used to be. It’s a shameless work of agitprop, and so fixed in a specific time and place that it already sounds sorta dated. But that lack of shame is what makes it compelling and interesting – she knows that being so straightforward and literal in her critique of Obama-era America is going to make a lot of people cringe, but her idealism is so strong that it’s like, fuck it, let ‘em cringe! I will be honest with you: As a fairly moderate and pragmatic liberal, a good chunk of Hopelessness makes me cringe SO HARD, but not because I disagree. I cringe more because I generally agree with what she’s singing, but can’t relate to being so idealistic and intense. I relate more to expressions of defeat and pessimism, but a song like “Execution,” as cynical as some of the lyrics get, is uplifting in its belief that humans can transcend their absolute worst qualities. It sounds like an angry yet beautiful prayer.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 26th, 2016
The Meaning Of Contentment
Alexis Taylor “Crying in the Chapel”
Alexis Taylor’s interpretation of “Crying in the Chapel” is faithful to the tone ofElvis Presley’s classic recording, but strips nearly everything out of the arrangement aside from piano. There’s just enough there to give the song its shape, and a slight amount of reverb to imply the richness of the Presley version. Taylor’s voice is nowhere near as honeyed and slick, but he sings with such earnestness that this is more than just another “weak-voiced indie singer plays a minimalist version of an old song” routine. He sounds totally overwhelmed by love and sentimentality; every note of this performance is filled with the saddest sort of joy. It reminds me of Cat Power’s recording of “Sea of Love,” which pulls off a similar trick of pushing a syrupy ballad into full-on tearjerker territory.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 27th, 2016
I Keep A Vision Of A Life That’s Free
Wolf Parade “Floating World”
Dan Boeckner has many bands – Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators – but regardless of who he’s playing with, his style is essentially the same. Boeckner’s aesthetic mixes twitchy new wave with a slurring dirtbag glam vibe, so he always sounds like some sexy rocker dude who’s dealing with some serious anxiety. He’s got the sound of a rock star, but he’s always casting himself as a foil. He’s the cool guy in Wolf Parade, but when he’s contrasted with Britt Daniel in Divine Fits, he’s the more tightly wound dude. He’s somewhere between those modes on “Floating World,” a song that feels a bit loose in parts, but tightens up on the chorus, as though he’s just realizing the emotional stakes of the song as it switches gears. The melody feels a bit familiar, but I think that works for it, especially in the context of this being part of an EP reintroducing Wolf Parade after a long hiatus. It feels immediately comfortable, like falling back into an old pattern.
Buy it from Amazon.