Abby Volta – Rabbit Catcher
Healthy people talk to themselves. But they don’t do it often. And they don’t do it in public. If talking to yourself would solve every problem, provide insights about any problem, and offer endless comfort, nobody would seek the company of anyone else. Why would you? It’d all just be a series of unpleasant meet-ups who people can’t possibly share your vision. You’d just lean back on yourself.
Healthy people also have favorite artists and a series of songs with which they are familiar. They’ll listen to them regularly and often label them so that they can use them for specific events. But sane people also need to be surprised. They need to be lulled to sleep or whipped into a frenzy. Music listeners want to know that there’s a good chance they’ll be hearing something they’ve never heard the next time that they turn on the radio.
Abby Volta’s “Rabbit Catcher” feels like running up and down the slopes of a mountain using a map that’s hard to read and suddenly changing direction. Are you surprised? Shocked? A little put off by the darkness of the songwriter’s poetry? Good! Great! This is what you need because you’re “Monday Sunshine Mix” won’t always cut it. Abby Volta’s witchy rock and desperate lyrics are just what’s needed to shake you into a brand-new frame of mind.
Current Swell – I’m A Mess
Life’s about winning, and it’s also about losing. It’d be a pretty boring story if it wasn’t. This is why nobody writes great novels or directs fantastic movies about comfortable middle-age or anything resembling it. This is not ageism in full effect, as you might think. Nah, it’s just that people who are comfortable in their lives don’t ever lose much and don’t even win anything special.
Isn’t this what youth is all about, and, consequently, all of the great movies dealing with those kinds of characters? This ain’t about age either. It’s about the adventure of it all, the yearning for something else, and the acceptance that a few teeth might get knocked out or ribs will get broken. The real characters in these dramatic comedies are just yelling out: “Come on, just give me something!”
Current Swell’s “I’m A Mess” captures the energy of being young, messed up and totally preferring this outcome to one where nothing of much importance ever really happens. If the lyrics are meant to turn this into a blues or a dirge, thankfully, they fail. Current Sweel sound like early Vaccines, all giddy with excitement over the possibilities. Don’t ever get too comfortable!
