Tag: 2020

Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #20 Nation Of Language “On Division St.”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date April 11, 2023
3 Comments on Best tunes of 2020: #20 Nation Of Language “On Division St.”

The story goes this way. Ian Richard Devaney’s band The Static Jacks had recently come apart and he was in a car with his father when his father put on a song he hadn’t listened to in many years: “Electricity” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (aka OMD). It evoked a great measure of nostalgia in him and he decided to try to write a song in a similar vein. He never meant it to amount to anything but this playing around with synths eventually brought us a new synth pop act out of Brooklyn. Nation of Language became a trio when Devaney added Aidan Noell for more synths and vocal support and former Static Jacks guitarist Michael Sue-Poi on bass.

They released a string of EPs and singles between 2015 and 2020 but I didn’t get to hear the group until they released their aptly named debut, “Introduction, presence”, in 2020. And even then, I didn’t catch up with this fine album when it was first released in the spring. It took a Spotify playlist, ‘made especially for me’ sometime in the fall, to include a song that made my ears prick up, had me reaching for my iPad to discover what song was playing, and then, had me googling a band name that had previously escaped my attention.

That song was “On Division St.” by Nation of Language.

“A song so sweet
From back when I was born”

Originally released as a single back in 2018, it was re-recorded for our collective “introduction” and it was well met, indeed. It is a lovely and sad thing that feels like I’ve known it all my life, grew up listening to it during my ansgty teen years. It is just over three minutes of romance unrequited, a rain soaked black and white photograph, discarded scarf, and a single dried rose. It is a drum machine set to weep and a flickering and fluttering arpeggio of synths. It is a solo form dancing and singing to him or herself in the middle of a long emptied dancefloor, still waiting and hoping for the appearance of a dream.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.

Tags 2020, 2020s, Alternative, American indie, Best tunes, Indie, Indie Pop, Nation Of Language, New Wave, Synth Pop

Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #21 Dream Wife “Hasta la vista”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date March 17, 2023
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2020: #21 Dream Wife “Hasta la vista”

<< #22 | #20 >>

From what I’ve read, London-based Dream Wife started from an art school project in which its three principal members portrayed a 90’s alt rock influenced band in a Spinal Tap-like mockumentary*. Rakel Mjöll, Alice Go, and Bella Podpadec (along with drummer Alex Paveley) still seem to be having fun but now, they’re damned serious as well. They are well-known for their electric live shows, not shying away from tough subjects in their lyrics and their unwavering support of women and non-binary, especially in terms of their underrepresentation.

I came upon the group after the release of their sophomore album, “So when you gonna…”, in 2020 and I made the immediate and obvious comparison to the riot grrl** punk acts that emerged out of the early nineties. But I also noted that it wasn’t all about the rage, hearing a certain embrace of melodic pop and felt there were whiffs of bands like Elastica and Sleeper and Echobelly from the Britpop era. To be honest, it was this latter element that led me towards repeat listens because as counterintuitive as it might sound, the introduction of pop elements to the harder edge suggested a willingness to expand and experiment.

I still haven’t gone back to explore the self-titled debut but I certainly will make the time, just as I plan to give their upcoming third album, “Social lubrication”, a go. “So when you gonna…”, though, is an enduring listen to my ears and the album’s second single, “Hasta la vista”, is all kinds of fun. But don’t be fooled by the title that smacks of the old Schwarzenegger tagline. Gimmicky, this song is not. The giddy-up bassline and ticky-tack drums get you moving and the synths just hang out there in the background, a humming wash, setting a warm tone. The guitars dance a pogo and frontwoman Rakel Mjöll softly bemoans and at the same time, celebrates relationships lost and never to be re-discovered. The band has admitted that “Hasta la vista” was the first song to be written for the new album after returning from a long period of the touring and coming home to find everything changed.

“Remember me in the morning light
Remember none of the wrong, just the right
Remember all the joy we gave
Remember that it paved the way”

This is a sentiment with which many can appreciate and identify. And now, they can dance to it as well.

*I loved Spinal Tap so I’d be curious to check it out, though I have no idea if it’s available anywhere online.

**As well other all female bands with a similar sound and aesthetic that had been mislabelled as such, like L7 and Hole.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.

Tags 2020, 2020s, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, British rock, Dream Wife, Indie, Indie rock, Pop punk, Trio

Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #22 Say Hi “And then some miniature golfing”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date February 3, 2023
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2020: #22 Say Hi “And then some miniature golfing”

<< #23 | #21>>

I had never heard, nor heard of, Say Hi prior to 2020 but this album called “Diamonds & donuts” came across my radar in the early days of the pandemic and it hit all the right notes with me. As it turned out, I would spend many hours listening to it over my headphones, while working away at my dining room table, while my lovely wife was doing the same across from me*. And this track, “And then some miniature golfing” was the album’s opening number.

Eric Elbogen started this project, originally called Say Hi to Your Mom, in Brooklyn back in 2002 and then, relocated operations to Seattle in 2006. He is the main creative force and its only real full-time member, though he has sometimes enlisted musicians to help realize his work in a live context. He has recorded and mixed pretty much all of the project’s 13 (!) albums (including this one) from the comfort of his home studio**, performing it all by himself. Word has it that a fourteenth album is due to be released later in 2023 and I would hazard that it would continue the trend as a real DIY bedroom pop project.

According to Elbogen himself, “Diamonds & donuts” was influenced by the idea of a series of psychological focus group tests, with each of the thirteen synth pop songs on the album representing a different experiment. “And then some miniature golf” posits the theory that “the saddest experience achievable by a human being is to be jolted awake from the false belief that you’ve truly found your soulmate.”

Oh, you even met her parents
And talked about traveling the world
‘Til she said “No matter what you think
I will never ever be your girl”

It’s 80s synth new wave with layers upon layers of hurt and pain, like they stuck Duckie Dale in the friend zone, but rather than at the prom, OMD is performing at a downtown New York punk club and the vocalist is channelling Joe Cocker and the Boss. It’s nostalgic and wistful with sidelong and knowing glances. Elbogen knows this kind of hurt and knows the only cure is more synths.