Big Society – December, forever
Similar artists: Vampire Weekend, The War On Drugs, Alabama Shakes
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
I’ve heard so much throughout my winters about the need to be better during the holidays and about buying expensive gifts for people I care about or for those that I barely know that I’ve become cynical about the most wonderful time of the year. It’s not age that has killed the Christmas spirit; it’s all the people trying to sell you something in the name of it. Yet, this winter, and everyone after it, there is reason to believe.
Big Society are in a hopeful mood and feeling romantic about relationships, both about the way they evolve and how they could work out. And, when someone is able to tell tales like this so sweetly, it’s easy to find yourself believing. After all, having trust that the world can be a better place and that you are part of it can only help improve the world and your own life along with it.
Big Society’s “December, forever” is a song as weighty as winter snow on the roof of an old wooden house. There’s something captured in the pretty vocal melodies of this track, something in the emotion burning slowly here, that makes you think these sorts of trials and rewards have been around forever. And, once you start thinking that, the world is not as bad, and neither is Christmas.
Community Sing – Come On Computer
Similar artists: M83, Talking Heads, Harry Nilsson, MGMT, LCD Soundsystem
Genre: Indietronica, Indie Rock
Back in 1975, the great Lester Bangs wrote a review of Krautrock’s brand of computer-rock that was titled “Kraftwerk: The Final Solution To The Music Problem?” Decades later, we have yet to witness the worst and the best of what a computer-assisted life may entail. What we know for certain is that we can’t go back to living on our own.
Most of us are in a state of denial about the importance of technology in every aspect of our daily existence, but not Community Sing. It’s all quite sinister and sterile when you first think about it, sure. But it all becomes average, common, normal the less you think about it and the more you accept it. In a world where mediocre AI is ready to become the norm, why not embrace its powers to produce nearly endless, nameless, worthless work forever?
Community Sing’s “Come On Computer” is an experiment of sorts – a glimpse into the frightening future world of online dating and computer-generated music. It’s not particularly inspiring nor monumentally stirring, but maybe that’s the point. Like a world wrapped in plastic, everything might just wither away. Community Sing has a soundtrack for that, and fittingly, it used AI to partly generate it. It’s a statement, alright. The future will include endless songs of every musical variety, but you’ll be too bored to listen to them.
