Arenas – Truth Come Alive
Nobody wants to become a rockstar anymore because of the money. Not everyone has had the opportunity of receiving a strong financial education. But even without it, you can’t expect people to be suckered into that kind of dream as easily as they once were.
Nah, there’s something far more valuable that becoming a rockstar can afford you – the luxury of putting off life for as much as you desire. What self-respecting rockstar stays up at night worrying about the price of the rent going up? It’s not about having the money to avoid worrying, but about having the status.
People are fine with irresponsible, deadbeat music stars. But that’s one of the only places where these kinds of characters can still catch a break. Everyone else has to tidy out their lives, or risk living out on the street, or worse.
Arenas’s smart, funny, uniquely put-together brand of indie-rock deals with the illusions behind most of us would love to hide. But, as the band’s figured out while writing “Truth Come Alive,” there are things that can’t be put off forever.
Meanwhile, the sound of Arenas is a strange blend between complete detachment and an utter need to create singalong choruses that thousands can sing in unison. It’s the sound of a dream that’s just about to be disturbed by an unwelcome dose of reality.
Spinoza Twins – Limbo
Your life may be a drag, but there’s no reason why your songs should be the same way. That’s, especially, true to remember if you’re the one writing songs for yourself. If you can design the sounds to fill your own world, why build something equally as dull and depressing as what reality has been able to produce. If you can, indeed, choose your own adventure, might as well make it a place worth jumping into from time to time.
Do rockstars only live in the most exciting of places, have the greatest of friends and enjoy the kind of late-night entertainment that would make an octogenarian have an immediate heart-attack? It’s easy to assume that this is the case. In fact, I fall into this trap a lot of times. But then I remind myself that many of the greatest songs were written and recorded in ordinary-looking, unexciting places and not in the most grandiose of circumstances.
Spinoza Twins sound far too exciting, motivated and flamboyant for this to be completely legal in Sweden. In fact, if the band wear these personality traits in the open when walking the streets, they are bound to, at least, get nasty looks from the many conservative Swedes.
But in the world of the Spinoza Twins regular days, boredom, and being stuck away from the action is made to sound like a blockbuster movie. The band’s sound is a tight indie-rock with danceable ska influences, and an invitation to try and find the very best of whatever circumstances will allow. Spinoza Twins have built their world as they saw fit. Still, you can just take a slice of it at any time and start creating your own.
