Dubinski – Downtown Operation
Genre: Pop Rock, Indie Pop, Alternative Rock
Most people hate sad endings. Everyone in the entertainment industry knows this, but there are still some who insist on providing paying audiences with a tragedy. Naturally, tragedies aren’t just part of everyday life; they are part of artistic tradition. However, it’s the folks who regularly are able to direct blockbusters that will argue that “someone who pays for a show deserves a happy ending.”
We can split hairs over the endings of our favourite pieces of entertainment all day long. What is certain is that what audiences deserve is an immersive environment. Paying audiences really expect to be transported into a world that is different from their own and, preferably, to be taken back to their own world without so much as a scratch. Easier said than done!
Dubinski’s “Downtown Operation” is a piece of effervescent pop music that will connect you to an imaginary world, will leave you there for four minutes without ways of contacting the outside world and will then snap you out of the dream. This is not progressive rock. It does all of this with the power of bright, silly synth lines and energy-filled vocals. It’s the ideal pop single: catchy, fun and a wee bit shallow.
Mikey Harms – The Wealth Is Gone
Similar artists: Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Cass McCombs, Tyler Childers
Genre: Lo-fi Rock, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
There’ll inevitably come a time when we will all be confronted by some of the saddest things that life has to offer. And, just as well, there’ll come a time when Phil Collins ballads will begin speaking to us. These are just inevitabilities of life. Getting used to them as quickly as possible is nearly a way to ensure survival. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid or shedding a tear, as Mikey Harms shows us.
You’re not alone, it goes without saying. And even the coolest, most experimentally friendly rockers eventually have their Phil Collins phantasies. The irony, naturally, is that the vast majority of them discover that making melodically complex music that tugs on the heartstrings is not the simple task they may have thought it would be.
Mikey Harms’ “The Wealth Is Gone” is indie-pop Phil Collins, an emotional ballad for a new generation. This is highly complex music rich in emotion, but not one designed to appear cool. This is not an unaffected piece of communication. No, this is the anthem of sorrow raised for all the heartbreak, sorrow and hardships that will fall on everyone. Most interestingly, the way that Harms sets everything up lets us understand that between Radiohead and ol’ Phil, there’s really very little difference.
