NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #18
Post-election palliatives
Happy post-election Wednesday. How are you? Still standing?
As I type this Tuesday evening, midterm election results are starting to roll in. Given that I expect this to be a disheartening night for non-sociopaths, I’m doing my best to avoid the news. Whatever will be, will be, regardless of whether I spend the next five hours staring at the NY Times “Election Needle” (no, I will not be hyperlinking that motherfucker.)
That said, I’m not entirely sure how long I can hold out. Even now, Steve Konracki’s siren song calls out, murky and seductive, begging me to crash my emotional wellbeing against Dipshit America’s rocky shores.
What I’m trying to say is, we’ll be keeping things relatively brief today. Thankfully, I completed my GOOD STUFF write-ups a couple days ago and, looking over these songs, they strike me as three viable post-midterm palliatives. So if you’re feeling a bit grey as you’re perhaps reading this on Wednesday afternoon, I encourage you to take refuge in one (or more) of these three great tunes.
GOOD STUFF
Natalia LaFourcade, “El Lugar Correcto”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: De Todas las Flores
Nutshell: Soothing Mexican Cocktail Pop
Voltage: 3
Thoughts: I know diddlysquat about Mexican pop, and Latin music in general—to be frank, most of it leaves me un poco de frío. It’s odd, given how much I love Mexican art, architecture and food. But I’m pretty sure Natalia LaFourcade is my “way in”. Her thoroughly charming Tiny Desk Concert a few years back had me immediately hooked. As a vocalist, she relies on silky-smooth phrasing and a keen sense of restraint. And LaFourcade is a whale of a songwriter—to my gringo ears, almost every tune sounds like a “standard”. Best of all, my rigorous Duolingo training allows me to understand roughly 18% of what she’s singing. Me encanta esta cancio y creo que tu tambien lo harás. Oye, tuve que buscar solo una palabra. ¡Dos años bien pasados!
Pairing Suggestion: As one YouTube commenter put it, “This nice lady and the awesome group of musicians make me want to go around and randomly hug strangers.”
Brutus, “Liar”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Unison Life
Nutshell: Passionate post-hardocre
Voltage: 8
Thoughts: Ever wonder what Bjork would sound like pissed off? Like, “you murdered my family and I’ve spent ten years tracking you down” pissed? Belgian post-hardcore trio Brutus may provide an answer. Stefanie Mannaerts isn’t what you’d call a “trained” singer, but she clearly swallowed an airhorn at some point in her life. I find her voice captivating, especially when you remember that she’s very capably bashing the shit out of her drum kit while singing. There’s an earnestness to Brutus that may not appeal to everyone. But while I appreciate a wry wink more than most, it’s also nice to hear a band that makes no attempt to disguise its ambition.
Pairing Suggestion: Scrawling a list of names in your own blood
Jim and Sam, “Space for the Stranger”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Space for the Stranger (E.P.)
Nutshell: Delicate ode to new parenthood
Voltage: 2
Thoughts: Some songs sneak up on you. You hear them once and think, “Well, this isn’t anything special—a plunky piano line, a bit of mellotron, an unassuming melody. Definitely nothing special. I’d better listen to it again, just to confirm how not special this is. Okay, maybe just once more…” Fact is, most of the songs that end up meaning a lot to us aren’t terribly complicated. That’s also true of the songs that mean nothing to us, of course. It’s the maddeningly ephemeral difference between ‘simple’ and ‘essential’. All I know is, I only became aware of “Space for the Stranger” two weeks ago and I feel like I’ve known it forever. And I find the lyrics quite touching, despite Kambri and I not having any children (that we know of, AMIRIGHTFELLAS???)
Pairing Suggestion: Sniffing a baby’s head (but not in a weird way)
SOME BULLSHIT
Given that my “Name That Video” saga has dominated the last three installments of NMFO, and also that I’m currently losing my Tuesday night battle against midterm election doomscrolling, I’m going to keep things relatively brief.
So Bono has a new book out. I haven’t read it and I’m not certain I will—I’m just not sure I can handle 500(!!) pages of that dude. I assume at least 75 of those pages are Sunglass Hut product reviews.
That’s not to suggest Bono has nothing interesting to say. The man has lived a life, that’s for sure. And I find half of what comes out of his mouth genuinely insightful—at times, revelatory. But the other half…oof. How am I supposed to absorb a 500 page memoir while repeatedly rolling my eyes and making a wanking gesture?
Granted, I’m not squarely in Bono’s target readership. It’s been 18 years since I noticed (much less cared about) the release of a new U2 album. And even in their prime, they flip-flopped between “most annoying band I enjoy” and “greatest band I can’t fucking stand”. If this degree of ambivalence calls to mind my internal wrestling match about Dave Grohl from a few weeks back (wait, you don’t commit this newsletter to memory??), that’s reasonable. As NMFO reader Matt Debenham states in the comments of NMFO #14, both Bono and Grohl have, in their respective times, dominated Rock culture, “ever-present, enthused, and kinda signifying nothing”.
Also, ambivalence is my natural state.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this NY Times Magazine interview that ran last week. It really captures the duality of the Bono Experience—the wit vs. the corniness, the poetry vs. the crass commercialism, the messiah complex vs. the Irish impulse to “take a piss”. We’ve spent 40 years watching this dude blow up his own balloon, pop it, blow it up again, re-pop it, rinse and repeat. One moment, he’s making astute and self-aware observations about U2’s place in the cultural landscape. The next moment, he’s hurling rough drafts of new songs at his interviewer, like one of those unbearable “you really need to hear my band” guys. It’s fascinating…in limited doses.
Have any of you yet read Surrender? Should I take the plunge?
And just for shits and gigs, here’s my top personal U2 top 20:
Ha. Our general tastes are still pretty wildly divergent. But we can agree on U2! And whatever that freaky disco music thing was from a couple weeks back.
I borrowed the audiobook from the library and what you said about "the duality of the Bono Experience" 100% applies to the book as well. I found the first half a lot more interesting than the second. I wish there had been more about the actual songwriting/making process. There's a bit of that but not enough, in my opinion. I think I was able to get through the audiobook a lot faster than if I'd read it visually. Bono's narration is nice and his writing can get rambly, so I think listening to it is a more enjoyable experience, plus you can have it on while doing something else. However, one downside of the audio is that Bono does some phenomenally cringe impressions of his famous friends, i.e. Bill Clinton.