Campaigner – Your Boyfriend
Nearly every rock music performer got to live out their fantasies. What? You can’t possibly assume that Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler actually did all of the things he bragged about doing in his band’s songs. It’s not just the bands that sang about hooking up with girls and doing drugs. You can’t possibly imagine that The Cure’s Robert Smith lived in a dungeon for his whole adult life in the way that the band’s music might suggest.
Why not entertain some revenge fantasies, too? It wouldn’t be such a novel thing after all. Bob Dylan wrote lyrics in which he imagined what hanging music critics would feel like. Taylor Swift writes about getting one over her rivals. Maybe it’s time we leave room for a little hate and humour in pop music and not let it all fall on the shoulders of silly black metal musicians.
Campaigner makes angry, highly personal and emotional folk music. Put an electric guitar behind it and blast it, and you’d easily get emotional punk-rock. “Your Boyfriend” is a short tune that sounds equally as a revenge fantasy and as the confession of someone whose romance hasn’t been blessed with the very best of circumstances. Best thing about it? Campaigner’s direct, no-frills delivery and minimalist production. You can’t be too fancy about these things when you’re planning to murder somebody.
Lyons & Co – Alabama Lies
It’s a rough patch for the arts and popular culture. The two never blended perfectly but now seem further apart than ever before. You can hear it in the pop charts, see it in the movies making it to cinemas, and notice it in the selection of books that make it bestsellers. Many people notice the problem. Some blame the modern artists’ ability or the marketing team’s budget. Some even blame the audience.
Maybe we should start at the core of things. What are most of these stories about, and why should people care? Even more importantly, are these the stories that the artists in question really want to say? A quick listen or read through the interviews given by these creative types shows that they’d rather be talking about other things, that they’ve been pushed in their current direction by marketing research and a desire to pay the bills. Who is still honest about who they are?
Lyons & Co. aren’t trying to be anyone but themselves. They play a mix of Southern rock sounds that helped build the foundations of what we now call pop music. These are not trendy sounds anymore, but they are part of the makeup of singer Bridget Lyons. So are the tales she recounts in songs like “Alabama Lies.” These are stories of heartache, personal tragedy and the frailty of man. This is why Lyons’ gritty vocal acrobatics fit this so well. Most pop stars want to learn how they can be somebody else, but some, like Bridget Lyons, can’t help but be themselves.
