Raisonlife – Find A Way
Post-grunge, Grunge, Alternative Rock
Do you remember that Seinfeld episode where they open up a muffin top shop and try to give the topless muffins to people living out on the street? Turns out nobody will have those disfigured muffins, regardless of whether they’re being given away for free.
That’s what pop music, and all its varieties, are like. The muffin top is the chorus. Or, in some cases the hook consisting of a great lyric, riff, or, even, an out-of-this-world vocal inflexion. We’ve all heard a lot of smart rock music. But, fail to deliver that hook and you’re unlikely to want anyone wanting to buy them for free.
Cruel, or not that’s what most bands have been asked to provide ever since the first 45 records. Russian post-grunge unit Raisonlife provides this on Find A Way like an ageing Kurt Cobain looking to restart his career. There’s nothing wrong with a great, big ol’ chorus, or with being successful, and this group looks on track to achieve those things. Where are your rock hitmakers tonight America?
A Very Special Episode – Cowboy
Genre: Post-Punk, Noise Rock, Alternative Rock
The great bands, just like the great music genres, knew when they’d taken a wrong turn. They stopped, retraced their steps, and meekly walked back to where the road had become too difficult to read. Some of them carved a new path, others disappeared.
Alternative rock has no way of dying, but it sure is making living hard on itself. During the early 1990s, various forms of alt-rock achieved world fame. This made the artists making the music and the labels supporting them a lot of money. In turn, this made fewer of them willing to take risks, to make quirky records, or to risk upsetting the fans they’d acquired. Because of that, their fans, eventually, went away.
A Very Special Episode is a shining light. Here’s a group with a sound big enough to fill out a spacious arena, yet infused with enough irregularity and bizarreness to make the misfit music fans relate. Cowboy is a great example of where the group sees itself. Big hooks, expressive lyrics, and touches of noise rock populate this single. Alternative rock has always had a strange way of doing things. This is why it’s worked for so long.