Hotel Hugo – Open Floor Plan
Your favourite records weren’t made by overly confident people living perfect lives, or by folks who could have anticipated the impact of their work. Just listen closer! All of them carry a sadness about being in the wrong place at the right time.
No, in fact, the best records captured the artists at just the perfect intersection of hope and despair. You see, when artists have too much success, all that hope makes them cocky. When they fall into too much despair, they can’t get out of bed in the morning.
You need that middle point for anything good, the idea that things might one day be better than they are right now. Just listen to the country-rock storytelling of Hotel Hugo for proof.
The idea of redemption from things that could tear you apart fills the single “Open Floor Plan.” The feeling that things must improve makes the songwriters keep their eyes open to suffering. However, “Open Floor Plan” is no dark blues. It’s sung in friendly tones that lure you in. It’s the right balance of hope and despair.
Filiah – Method Acting
If we grow up surrounded by records, posters on the walls of great artists, and music playing around us at all times, you can forgive us for developing the instinct to hero-worship the people who give us these things.
After all, they’re the ones who manage to verbalise the things we love or fear the most, and are capable of adding the right beat to it. They’re able to create a spell whereby these thoughts are turned into movies that always play in your head.
But they might not have it easy either. Take Filiah, for example. The Austrian pop star’s music is melancholy-filled but confident. Yet, pay close attention to each scene, and you may discover someone who aches just as much as you do.
“Method Acting” is a pop music made from an alternative angle. It’s dark, but pleasing music about the lack of sincerity in the world, and about living through a constant state of confusion and anxiety. It’s grandiose, but relatable.
