
Honeysucker – New Dust
Most people are looking for something to destroy them. But it’s a big decision, of course, and it’d better be worthwhile. There are many things that can turn your life upside down, have you counting stars in the daytime and make you walk funny. But the majority of those things that promise annihilation aren’t worth getting out of bed for. Nah, people need a great love affair to sacrifice themselves to.
It’s a pretty sinister business and one that most people never acknowledge or only bring up in expensive therapy sessions. Maybe that’s why most songwriters avoid talking about this as well. Love songs tend to be about fulfilment and endless satisfaction. They’re rarely about getting beat up, abused and coming back for more. That might make them more interesting, though.
Honeysucker’s “New Dust” is plenty interesting. It makes everyone else who ever wrote a love song sound like a two-faced liar. On “New Dust”, being in love is worse than nursing some serious chemical addiction. It comes only to people who hate themselves and are still capable of endless amounts of love for someone else. The music, a soundtrack to creepy, late-night cinema, really sells the story and leaves no doubt.
Mystery Friends – On the Floor!
People pleasers are the worst kind of people. And, by design, those who are also ambitious and belong to this category make their way into the world of entertainment. They’re people who like to get pointed at and told where to sit and how to act. They’re the kinds of people who will study TikTok trends and make music just to accommodate them.
If you want to blame anyone for the state of modern music and, indeed, the state of the world, don’t blame the egomaniacs and angry bastards. Start with blaming the people who don’t know what they want and have to be told.
On the other hand, the folks who have little need for anyone else, who welcome the opportunity to be disliked, and who have clear, fixed ideas that they don’t want to abandon make great pop-rock stars.
Mystery Friends’s “On the Floor!” sounds like the diary entry of someone looking to start a relationship with whoever walks into the bar next. The production work is great, as is the commitment to use a minimalist, highly effective musical orchestration. Do you need a soundtrack for a show about a seductress who bosses people around? This might be it.