Inkfields – Fate of Luck
Similar artists: DOPE LEMON, STRFKR, Beach House, Jadu Heart, Tame Impala
Genre: Indietronica, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
You’re a poet, and, naturally, you’re looking for employment that can utilize your rare skills. You open the newspaper and glance upon a classified seeking a “funny-man that can write 20 tweets a day and make a celebrity sound witty.”
No doubt, you answer the ad. You know from your friends that this is how many poets earn their living nowadays. Nobody wants to pay for poetry, but everyone, when they go out in public, wants to sound smart and deep.
Inkfields’ “Fate of Luck” is poetic psych-rock playing with silences and meant to force an audience to listen. In order to achieve this, the orchestration is almost stripped bare.
The vocals either deliver speeches about the woes of the common man or slithering vocals. It’s hard to take the gift of gab and do something worthwhile with it these days, but Inkfields manage just fine here.
Hannah Aldridge – Portrait Of The Artist As A Middle Aged Man
Genre: Psychedelic rock, Americana
If you randomly stop a stranger on the street, it is best to tell them something familiar and comforting. This will ensure that the stranger won’t run away frightened. Tell them about the world ending or about how your aunt is hiding a treasure in her attic, and they’ll report you to the police.
In pop music, it’s usually just as wise to deliver familiar, obvious solutions to your audience. This is how things work, and that’s why they get kind of boring.
The more exciting approach, of course, is to try and make every element of your as uncommon and difficult to classify as possible. Give the audience as much of a mental workout as it took you, the artist, to create the work.
Hannah Aldridge’s “Portrait Of The Artist As A Middle Aged Man” is a neo-noir fantasy transformed into a song. The vocal delivery may recall Tom Waits and the title provides a nod to James Joyce. However, the observations and storytelling are wholly original.
The vocals are the main selling point. It’s a smokey, natural tone that recalls actresses from the Golden Age of Cinema. It’s hard to argue with these kinds of words or to doubt that they speak the truth.
