
Sunfish – Bored Again
Genre: Grunge, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Pavement, Beck, Bush
Young, would-be rock stars have all the willingness in the world to ape their heroes. They get their haircuts, wear their clothes, and even pick up many of their bad habits. Who knows how many people ought to blame Keith Richards for making them start smoking and who knows what else?
But, usually, finding out the things to write about proves tricky. This, usually, stomps any new band. For the majority of them, the task is made more difficult because of the perceived grandeur of the work of the aforementioned heroes. How can one write about just powerful themes when their own lives aren’t nearly as exciting? Well, the good news is that nobody’s life is really that exciting.
Sunfish’ Bored again captures that drama of a day spent getting high, getting by, and doing very little else. It’s the truth! And, it’s the kind of admission that many of their listeners will feel a kinship towards. The 90s generation of rock-star slackers spoke to people that didn’t want to be told they had to muster up some get-up-and-go. It takes a particular talent to be able to speak that language and Sunfish know it.
Elsdeer – Ten years Time
Genre: Folk, Pop-rock
You don’t necessarily need to be in tremendous pain to be a great songwriter, but it can certainly help. The ones that are able to summon up the hurt at will yet still keep their heads above water are, usually, the ones that prosper. They achieve this through an almost alchemical process of turning their truest feelings into art that people can enjoy and freely consume.
It’s not an easy trade-off! First of all, things of such gravity are difficult to explore in any way, let alone talk about in the song. Secondly, there is an easier approach that involves simply writing about the kinds of topics that one may assume an audience cares about.
German singer-songwriter Elsdeer dives into the deep end of Ten Years Time, a haunting song about loss and trauma. The gentle, heartbreaking singing is the focal point of the song. However, the late-Britpopesque instrumental is bound to get an audience tuned into the singer’s tale of woe and the effort needed to pull oneself together.