This is the 1st Fluxblog email newsletter.
Hi, I am Matthew Perpetua, and I am trying a new thing for Fluxblog. I realize that "going to websites" is not a very cool thing to do these days, and if I'm going to put in the effort of continuing to write my site 4-5 days every week, I should also try to make it easier for some people to keep up with it, or even pay attention to it at all.
So this is how the newsletter will work: Every Friday, I will send out a newsletter that includes this week's posts, plus some other links and bonus stuff, and links to other music-related stuff I have published in that time. I might include some stuff from the archives as well. I'm also going to be working on some new Fluxblog surveys, and when I'm doing that, I can put out a call for feedback and all you'd need to do is reply like a regular email.
Sound good? OK. If not, unsubscribe and move on with your life.
Here are this week's posts, plus a few other recent posts.
May 7th, 2015
Get Up Next To You
Jason Derulo “Want to Want Me”
A lot of current pop artists will tell you they are aiming for an ’80s pop sound, but most of the time the result is more of a vague gesture, or grasping for an abstract ’80s-ness that’s kinda warped by not having first-hand experience of living in that era. But this song by Jason Derulo genuinely sounds like something that would’ve been a big hit in the late ‘80s, from the specific attack on the keyboard parts to way you have this soulful but sorta hemmed in R&B vocal at the center of a song with dynamics and structure that reads more rock. A lot of what makes ‘80s pop interesting, exciting, and enduring is that most of it is pulling from a lot of genres at once, and there’s this fascinating collision of different eras of pop songwriting construction, new technologies putting fresh spins on old forms, and an often seamless merging of influences from white and black corners of culture. A lot of this happened for less-than-great social reasons, but the results still feel sorta utopian, especially when you’re looking at the work of Prince, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson. “Want to Want Me” isn’t quite on their level, but it’s a joyful song that really doesn’t quite fit into any genre, but is so direct and well-made that it seems like you’d have to fight hard to resist it.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 6th, 2015
Tweet Like A Pope
Wire “Blogging”
It’d be so easy for this to be a cranky song about the internet written by a guy in his 50s, but that’s not quite what this is. Colin Newman sings words like “Google Maps” and “Amazon wishlist” in a way that highlights their strangeness – just odd product names for things that didn’t exist too long ago – but puts them in the context of Christianity, something just as contrived that has existed for much longer. In “Blogging,” they go hand in hand as man-made devices for understanding the world. The two things sound ridiculous when smashed together – “blogging like Jesus,” “I’m YouTubing hope” – but Newman’s point seems to be that both are artificial, but are both are so essential to society that it’s hard to imagine life without them. There’s almost no hope in this song. It’s cold and sterile and harsh, just an expression of nihilism and vague contempt for the very idea of trying to make sense of world, or attempting to create order out of chaos.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 5th, 2015
Lost In The Moment For The Second Time
Tame Impala “‘Cause I’m A Man”
It’s very hard for me to listen to the chorus of this song without hearing “‘cause I’m a man, woman / don’t mistake me for a dude.” It’s like the “Starbucks lovers” of 2015. And really, that’s kind of a great lyric because there really is a gap between being a “man” and being a “dude,” and if we’re being real, most young guys are just dudes. It’s aspirational. But that’s not really what’s going on in this song. This is a song in which Kevin Parker wallows in guilt and self-pity for saying something dumb to his girlfriend, and he’s trying to explain himself: He’s a good person, but he often speaks carelessly. He has a conscience, but it’s “prone to being overruled.” He’s not proud of himself, but he’s OK with being a flawed human. It’s strange to hear a song that’s so lovely and kinda sexy – I mean, this is basically a slow jam – be mainly about a guy struggling with a shame spiral. But that gentle, sensual sound is a great way of conveying both his genuine vulnerability and his actual affection for this lady, which – to him – is far stronger than a moment of thoughtless cruelty.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 4th, 2015
Bleary Expectation
Torres “Cowboy Guilt”
Torres’ music mostly sounds like anxious, angry, confusing emotions being buried beneath the surface, but then busting out when it’s too much to repress. The moments of catharsis in her songs are great, but I’m more interested in how she conveys the feeling of holding in nervous energy while trying to keep up a steady front. The guitar and keyboard lines in “Cowboy Guilt” sets up a vibe that’s somehow relaxed and cautious at the same time – it sounds like being in a situation that’s familiar, but you’re still not quite sure what to expect. The song becomes a lot more simple when she shifts into loud chords, which makes a lot of sense, since that’s the point in the song where she’s judging someone and there’s some kind of clarity.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 29th, 2015
Listen Up, I’m Saving You
Shamir “Call It Off”
I know LCD Soundsystem was itself largely a conglomeration of sounds and hooks pulled from pre-existing music, but wow – this track sounds remarkably similar to LCD Soundsystem. I don’t think that’s easy. But it doesn’t feel like a knock-off, it just feels like a custom frame for Shamir’s voice, which is just as charming and versatile as it was on last year’s single “On the Regular.” “Call It Off” doesn’t feel as much like a novelty – it goes to a darker place, with Shamir shaking off a bad relationship with someone who was apparently spending a lot of time gaslighting him. When he snaps back to being cute and assertive on the rapped bridge near the end, it’s like he’s fully himself again.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 27th, 2015
The Slow Boat That Lands On A Misty Sea
Blur “Ong Ong”
When I first heard that Blur was returning with a new album after a long reunion tour phase (which never came to New York and I am still very bitter about that), I was a bit too cautious to feel excited. My fear was that despite working with the members of Blur, who have a very distinct chemistry, Damon Albarn would just have them play the sort of dour and dreary music that has dominated most of his projects over the past several years. Though Blur have recorded many ballads, and some of those rank among their best songs, I think it’s fair to say that the core musical identity of Blur is rather bright and up-tempo, sometimes to the point of feeling rather manic. This is the thing I wanted; this is the thing that’s been missing.
The good news is that a little over half of The Magic Whip sounds like classic Blur while also feeling a bit fresh and different. Graham Coxon’s guitar style on this record is generally in the same zone as where he was on Blur and 13, but it’s not quite the same – he occasionally shifts into a cleaner tone, and there’s some vaguely Asian motifs sprinkled throughout the record. The remainder of the record is the sad sack Albarn you’d expect these days, but even those tracks don’t just feel like they could’ve been on some other Albarn project, and really take advantage of Coxon’s loose-yet-precise style, as well as that of Dave Rowntree and Alex James. Albarn has played with a very wide range of musicians in his career, but this just feels natural. It just sounds like he’s at home on this record.
“Ong Ong” is the best of the new songs. I hear a lot of Kinks in it, and it’s been quite some time since that influence has been obvious in Albarn’s work. What really gets me about this song is how generous it feels – it sounds so loving, so grateful, so earnest. A great deal of Albarn’s work over the years has been rather depressive or world weary, and I think that’s definitely there in the subtext of the song, but what you’re actually hearing here is the sort of joy and yearning that comes from finding someone or something to love in a world that’s always letting you down.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 24th, 2015 12:25pm
What A Disgusting Feeling
Car Seat Headrest “Kimochi Warui (When? When? When? When? When? When? When?)”
Please don’t be put off by the title of this song. It is a such a good song, and the lyrics are so good. Trust me on this. The strange thing about this is that while the title is very cryptic and precious, Will Toledo’s words in the actual song aren’t that way at all. In a voice that’s both drowsy and endearingly romantic, he’s singing quite directly about angst and existential dread. The subject matter is as melodramatic as it gets, but his delivery and phrasing is all very matter of fact. This is how it can be when you’re depressed – every emotion blurs into blah grey nothingness. Toledo’s music is fairly low-fi and the instruments sound cheap, but it really works for this song in the way it grounds everything in a drab, mundane setting. His arrangement is great, though – it’s always moving in some interesting way, and pushes him towards moments of shabby grace as the song reaches its climax.
Buy it from Bandcamp.