Herr Nilsson – Sensational
Can you imagine what it must’ve been like to hear, and especially to see, the first Beat groups of the 1960s on television? No, it wasn’t just the fact that they had great tunes and even better haircuts. It was something else.
They were bringing with them a kind of hopelessness that felt revolutionary. This was, after all, a world that had seen the greatest carnage in the history of mankind just a few decades earlier.
And, suddenly, these kids in colourful clothing were singing that all you needed was love! That kind of thing took brains, but especially guts. There was bravery in that, as there is in Herr Nilsson’s brand of optimism.
If the bubbly indie-rock single “Sensational” has anything to tell you is that you shouldn’t allow the evilness of this world to steal your potential to see beauty and feel happiness. For this, Herr Nilsson uses buoyant guitar-pop inspired equally by the 60s Beat groups or 90s Britpop as inspiration. The world may end someday, but what are we doing with the time we have?
Tory Silver – Microwave
There’s a pretty good reason, I think, why there hasn’t been an album like “Thriller,” “Rumours,” or “Hotel California” made in a few decades. No, I don’t think that it’s because of the people running the music business, and certainly wouldn’t dare blame the talent involved.
Nah, it’s all because the people who could’ve produced those pop juggernauts decided to become lawyers and accountants instead, jobs that pay well in any economy. Michael Jackson would be in the courtroom defending people, for a change, if the money wasn’t in selling records anymore.
The good news, however, is that this means that only people who desperately want to make art have stuck around. The majority of them still feel the cold spectres of routine and convention each time that they wake, as Tory Silver does.
The greatest artists, as the greatest athletes, got into this line of work to avoid taking the same route to work and doing paperwork every day. “Microwave” is a single that recalls the noisy underground rock bands of the late 1980s, not just in sound, but in the promise that, whatever happens, the artist singing it will try to make each day into a bit of an adventure.
