
Graffiti Welfare – Just Follow
Graffiti Welfare’s Just Follow sounds like the last song on an album or the soundtrack to a final scene in a film production. Either way, it’s the end of something. This isn’t a psychedelic rock song about taking it easy. It’s one about letting go.
In fact, it all makes sense. The artist’s liner notes reveal his intention to write about highly personal issues such as family, loss, or anxiety, matters that require the intimate backdrop that can be accessed here.
Musically, Graffiti Welfare has been paying attention to what the psych-rock modernists have been doing. The production and delivery take cues from the likes of Tame Impala. However, it’s a personal set of dreams and memories that informs this song and the collection that can be found on album Revolving Shores.
The Drives – The Comedown
The hippies described a reality with colours so vivid that they were retina-punishing. Sure, various chemicals and new-age philosophies may have played a part in their optimism. But, the fact of the matter remains, that the archetypal look of the 60s and 70s involves enough colours to send you into a seizure.
Now, the colours all seemed to fade from popular music as years went on. Occasionally, 90s and 2000s especially, some rock groups simply had the idea to throw black dye all over everything. That stuck around for a while until it too began fading.
The indie-rock sound that The Drives specialize in on The Comedown is drawn in those faded ribbons. It’s music for the big city, for separation, for ordinary anxiety. Still, the tune powers through the gloom and even swings on occasion much like the garage-rock revival bands it has as predecessors. From Lou Reed, to Julian Casablancas, to the Drives, the city will always have its minstrels to sing its blues.