The Wednesday Play – Flickers
Similar artists: Blur, Buzzcocks, The Fall
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Garage Rock
The rain gets into the grass, and you can’t help but step in the mud as you walk around. The Sun lays on the skin and in the eyes, and you can’t help but get a tan. Unless you live in Sweden, where songwriters are supposed to learn to write pristine pop songs by age thirteen, you are bound to be affected by the weather and your environment.
The English, for example, can’t help but sound glum even when they’re describing happiness. Had England won the World Cup, there’d be a line of grown men weeping into their beer about their misery. It’s all a bit of a jumbled mess, but it makes for some of the best music in the world
The Wednesday Play’s “Flickers” is a great debut because it tells you almost all that you want to know about the people who recorded the music. They’re young, smart, and look forward to Saturday night, even if it’s bound to disappoint them. It’s post-punk, created by a great musical legacy and by rain that falls from above, below and sideways from Monday to Sunday.
Ben Fox Smith – Orbital Shards
Similar artists: Serafin, Stony Sleep, Pixies, Foo Fighters, Neil Young
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock
Everyone seems to want to feel a different way than they do. Some have very good reasons to do so. Nobody said that life was easy. But the vast majority of people are simply bored with their comfort and with the routine that ensures that they get to keep that level of ease. Ben Fox Smith’s “Orbital Shards” is music that works like a pill. It’s created to alter your mood quickly.
Being able to alter one’s mood at will is something devoutly to be wished for, sure. This is especially true in an era where the attention economy makes it so that your most intense feelings and long-running moods mean money in the bank for various businesses. To turn yourself from a fighter into a yogic explorer at will is a mighty nice superpower.
Ben Fox Smith’s “Orbital Shards” sounds like the music playing in your head after ingesting a considerable quantity of stress relief medicine. Yes, as you can hear from the lyrics, the problems are still there. They just can’t get at you as they used to. Best of all, there are no risks of addiction or overdose. This modern music stuff is a pretty nifty invention, as it turns out.
