Joyful Forfeit – No Better. No Worse.
They say that a great song stands up on its own regardless of its orchestration and that playing it on an acoustic guitar is the best way to determine its worth. That’s true, perhaps, if you are a folk enthusiast or if you spent many years working for “MTV Unplugged.” But let’s not pretend that hearing a modern troubadour recite poetry over a G chord is something that can entertain us for months on end.
You can replace colossal-sounding guitars or drums that seem to be crashing out of the heavens instead with acoustic guitars and tambourines, just like you can replace pizza with health hood. But what’s the point, and who really benefits?
Richard Wagner did nothing small and looked at him. He helped two German kingdoms be plunged into financial ruin at different moments in history. But nobody can dare say that Herr Wagner was a small fry.
Joyful Forfeit’s “No Better. No Worse.” is designed to be the tower block equivalent of a rock song. But this ain’t average. It’s not just glass being used and other cheap materials. Joyful Forfeit likes to add pretty melodies in a way that few of their peers do.
The band likes to integrate powerful lyrics about the drudgery of daily life. It’s more interesting than a room at the Trump Tower. There’s a vision behind Joyful Forfeit and it’s carefully designed for maximum impact. You wouldn’t be able to get that from a folkie.
Bondo – Triple Double
What kind of music would The Buddha play if he were a citizen of the modern world and inclined to learn to play an instrument? Odds are that he’d consider it a waste of time, but he certainly wouldn’t be inclined to become an Instagram guitarist updating the solos of Eddie van Halen so as to include more speed and technique.
Nah, The Buddha would be taking his time. It’d take him 2-3 years to write 40 minutes worth of music in order to play it live. And, then, most likely, the beat of each song wouldn’t outpace a snail crawling home after a long day. The songs would be about life, sure, but nothing about cars, girls or voting in the next presidential election.
Bondo’s “Triple Double” is the kind of music that The Buddha might make or at least enjoy. It’s tremendously slow. The vocal delivery sounds like it belongs to a man determined to take life slowly. And the lyrics are about ruin and sports injuries. Bondo made this record while recouping at home, and you can tell. It won’t offer any answers, but it’ll certainly make the days pass by slower.
