Fonteyn – Girl On A Motorcycle
Genre: Classic Rock, Art Rock, Indie Pop
Similar artists: Drugdealer, Margo Guryan, Todd Rundgren
Contrary to what revisionist films will have you believe, neither the U.S.A. nor the rest of the world embraced psychedelia during the 1960s the way that they would take on the latest dance craze. Sure, there were certain aspects of it that permeated society. Yes, there were psychedelic songs that would find their way up the charts. But, by and large, Woodstock was quickly replaced by other events, and few people really looked to tie-dye shirts as a natural fashion alternative.
What the psychedelic era did do was loosen the pop world’s inhibitions. It made mainstream culture a tad more open towards accepting songs that featured bizarre, sometimes non-sensical elements. It taught normies to trip out in a field while strange bearded men played their guitars. In many ways, little has changed.
Pop music is as accepting of psychedelia as it ever has been. And so, it takes a special kind of presentation to get regular to prick their ears. Fonteyn’s Girl on a motorcycle features just the right combination of whimsical, classic pop and a David Lynch-like ambiance to make it the strange scene that one can’t look away from or avoid hearing. It’s the kind of song that flows smoothly like a spell being chanted from the hilltop, the kind of music that will make the town dwellers dance until they fall down dead.
Juliana Madrid – Astronaut
Genre: Bedroom / Lo-fi Pop, Indie Pop, Alt Pop
It is remarkable how much of the poetry and misery of our teenage years are wasted. Sure, some might argue that it is these feelings and the experiences that generate them in the first place that end up making us who we are. But that’s silly. For the most part, young adults are tasked with spending their days waiting for days when they’ll be grown up enough to make their own decisions, to have their opinions matter, to get to be taken seriously.
And, this is all quite stupid. There is an endless reservoir of pure emotions in the hearts, especially of artists at this age. Most of them haven’t yet acquired the tools required to give their dreams a voice. A lot of them feel burdened by the weight of expectation that they put on themselves. When left to roam freely, however, their imagination touches on ideas and feelings that, likely, will never be available to them ever again. It’s a shame that most of us don’t document our tiny teenage struggles.
Of course, there are those blessed with prodigious talent. Juliana Madrid’s Astronaut finds the young artist not only struggling with issues related to love and identity but also capable of beautifully articulating everything she feels. Rather cleverly, the songwriter doesn’t merely tell you what it’s like but shows you through the form of storytelling. This is wisdom, we would expect, well beyond the writer’s years. But, it’s also a compelling musical arrangement complete with great melodies and a lovely singing voice. Some folks just get it right the first time.
