Fluxblog Weekly #91: Joan of Arc, the xx, Foxygen, Delicate Steve
January 16th, 2017
All Along Unknowingly
Joan of Arc “This Must Be the Placenta”
Tim Kinsella is very playful in his approach to lyrics, and seems to layer his work with sly references to music, literature, and art both obscure and famous as if to make it all a code for someone nearly as clever and tasteful as himself to crack. But it doesn’t stop there. Kinsella has a gift for juxtaposing vividly strange phrases with lines that start out like self-aware jokes but have an agonizing emotional resonance. You get all of that in “This Must Be the Placenta” on top of a track that manages to feel wobbly and seasick despite a steady, in-the-pocket groove. There’s a lot of great lines in this one, but the one that really sticks with me is “I’ve had a 26-year-old girlfriend since the day I turned 11.” It’s funny, but also so strange and provocative as it sits in my mind and I try to unpack that thought. I like to think that it’s not the same girlfriend, but that his desires have shifted from aspirational maturity and yearning for maternal attention to looking for an equal to wanting to reverse the original dynamic. Another phrase that gets repeated is “all along unknowingly I acted out the plan,” and in light of that, the “26-year-old girlfriend” bit seems more like a joke he’s barely in on.
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January 17th, 2017
The Thrill Of Affection
The xx “Say Something Loving”
The xx have become significantly less minimalist on their new album I See You, integrating the samples and muted dance music aesthetics of Jamie xx’s solo material while still sounding exactly like the xx. The shift isn’t drastic – pretty much all of this still can be described as “minimal” compared to most other things and the music still is all about creating a powerful sense of intimacy. Romy and Oliver, both openly queer in real life, still sound like a very intense straight couple when they sing to each other. But the sound is brighter, less static. The world implied in their songs feels a lot bigger than just the two of them in close quarters.
“Say Something Loving” is about finding love again after being starved for affection for a long time, and the conflict between feeling happy and grateful for this good fortune, and terrified that you’ll screw it up somehow. “I wasn’t patient to meet you,” Oliver sings. “Am I too needy, am I too eager?” They articulate these anxieties but don’t let those feelings overtake the song, keeping the emphasis on the warmth and affection. They evoke a specific moment a lot of us have experienced: Getting exactly what we want but spoiling it by thinking the whole time about how it’s going to go away.
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January 18th, 2017
In The Garden Of Love With You
Foxygen “Avalon”
If you are a musician skilled in mimicry, glam rock is your friend. There’s never any need to be authentic, and you’re only limited by a lack of shame and/or a lack of funds. Foxygen gave up on shame years ago, and now they’ve got the budget to back themselves up with a large orchestra, so you’d better believe they went well over the top on their new record. “Avalon” is gloriously artificial, bouncing around between ‘70s touchstones both unimpeachably cool (Bowie) and perennially tacky (Meat Loaf), and like, actual musical theater. This is theatrical rock that sounds like it aspires to actually becoming gleefully dorky Broadway razzle-dazzle, as though the record won’t be truly finished until it’s a jukebox musical. It’s all kinda-sorta a joke – on some level they’re goofing on musical tropes as much as they’re embracing them, and I am certain you’re meant to smile and go “wow, they really did that!” when you listen. But there’s no way you invest this much time and craft and personality into something you think is bullshit, unless bullshit is your absolute favorite thing in the world. And with these guys, I think that could be true.
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January 19th, 2017
We Like To Boogie
Delicate Steve “Nightlife”
Delicate Steve plays guitar like a lead singer, so it works out nicely that there’s no singer in his band. His lead parts carry the central melody of the tunes, but even if it works as a substitution for a traditional rock singer, it doesn’t necessarily feel like one. Steve’s parts are highly expressive and instantly memorable, and frankly, convey a lot more personality than most indie rock singers. The songs on This Is Steve are so catchy and well-composed that they’d probably be hits if they had singing in place of Steve’s leads, but they’d lose a significant amount of charm, and distract from the colorful, idealized alternate reality suggested by the music. “Nightlife” in particular sounds like some better, more cheerful world where seemingly disparate elements from twangy rock and reggae blend together seamlessly and it’s totally chill and casual.
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