Wrevlonne – What Have You Done to Charlie?
Similar artists: The Smiths, Future Islands, Beach Fossils, The Drums, The Cure
Genre: Surf Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
A lot of ordinary, torturous grief is hidden by so many people below the surface every day, and Wrevlonne use their 80s guitar-pop songwriting to approach these topics.
Pop music has a long and tense history with “serious songs.” This is because pop stars are told that their songs, no matter how serious they are, must check two boxes. First, they should not put people off from dancing and buying the product. Secondly, they should be as serious as will encourage coverage in magazines and television programs.
In other words, these sorts of songs are rarely earnest. This in itself is enough to make pop music something that anyone can easily dispense. Now, for the most part, this is where indie/alternative music has been different. Songs by bands like The Smiths or The Cure routinely spoke of the things usually unspoken of in pop music or polite company.
Wrevlonne’s “What Have You Done to Charlie?” is a sweet song about a friend’s troubles, and it’s a tune written without any intention of sounding clever or deep. The shimmering guitars and matter-of-factly tone of the lyrics recall The Smiths, of course. But in covering such a profound topic with the seriousness of a journalist taking down notes, Wrevlonne make their fingerprints unavoidable. Perhaps pop music could learn a thing or two.
DADABE – Paz
Similar artists: Pavement, DIIV, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh
Genre: Lo-fi Rock, Alternative Rock
DADABE take a queue from the broken dream-pop of 80s bands that loved slacking around, playing distorted guitars, and writing love songs.
The lives of innovators are, for the most part, tragic. Unless what it is that they create has an immediate and direct impact on an industry that can generate colossal cash flows, the innovators suffer in a variety of ways. They are ignored, derided, or even seen as mad.
But if they’ve done their job right, they almost always become influential. Take Alex Chilton, for example. His bands hardly sold any records, but by the early 1990s, his brand of feedback-washed guitar pop was providing the basis for a new wave of bands. In 2023, those sentiments remain just as valid.
DADABE’s “Paz” is an earnest, lo-fi-sounding, fuzz-guitar power-pop number. It echoes DIIV by way of Pavement by way of Big Star. It’s an honest-sounding record in which the guitar playing captures the vitality of falling in and out of love with life and somehow surviving. And, in doing that, it gets to the essence of slacker rock.
