Cap’n Marble – Asleep on the Run
Similar artists: Metronomy, MGMT, Tame Impala, Cage The Elephant, Djo
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Alt Pop
It’s hard to become part of the assembly line of pop culture and even harder to make fun of it in a clever way. Iggy Pop called the folks attempting such a thing just another victim of “mass production.” Kraftwerk described their work on the edge of the pop sphere as the work of Musik-Arbeiter. Can’n Marble take a similar approach to making indie-pop.
What’s hardest about these kinds of attempts is that neither the artists nor the audience can know what’s a joke and what is real at any point. Furthermore, while many ironic pop songs of the past have become hits, it’s easy to misjudge the quantity of humor that can be introduced and have the audience believe that you’re making fun of them.
Cap’n Marble’s “Asleep on the Run” walks the tightrope between making pop music and making fun of pop music. The song utilizes numerous retro motifs in an attempt to save them before they disappear completely. But it also makes use of elements that are soft, hooky, and tailor-made for festival audiences. It’s hard to know when Cap’n Marble are being earnest, but it’s easy to tap your foot along to their pop sound.
Club Coma – Immune
Genre: Alternative Rock
Are you one of the people who like to be surprised by life, or would you rather just know everything that is about to happen to you before it actually does? If you are like most pop fans nowadays, you will answer the latter. Club Coma, however, tries to create pop music for the ones who like to get a few jolts and surprises along with their music.
This approach, of course, is novel in 2023. However, it was one that defined most classic pop bands back in, for example, the 1960s. At that stage, it was believed that for a group to develop and prosper, they would need to continuously find new ways of expressing their ideas. Novel songwriting techniques, instruments, and approaches to writing were all part of the course.
Club Coma’s “Immune” is pop music that plays hide-and-seek with itself throughout its running time, finding and losing itself from one moment to the other. While lyrically, this could easily be a routine pop tune, the expansive, often imaginative instrumentation suggests something else. It suggests that these are pop tunes looking to create a break from the inside.
