Kurran Karbal – We Won’t Be Alone Forever
Genre: Indietronica, Indie Pop, Alt Pop
Pop stars nowadays don’t use electric guitars too much. Not unless they have a reason to do it. Not unless they are really trying to send out a message. You see, someone playing a distorted guitar through large amplifiers sends as much a message as a whole verse of rhymes would. It says: “This is a part that’s supposed to be loud, and I want you to pay attention to it!”
Now, the acoustic guitar, an instrument that’s been around far longer than its electric companion, has begun being used in much the same way. Pop singers no longer know how to play one, albeit there are a few exceptions. So, when someone whips out an acoustic guitar, it usually is meant to quickly say: “This is a quiet part right here; it’s an emotional one, and I want you to hear it!”
Kurran Karbal’s “We Won’t Be Alone Forever” manages to tell you exactly what it is after from the very first strummed notes of the acoustic guitar. This is music designed for soft summer nights and days following painful breakups. It’s not unlike The Wannadies’ “You and Me Song.” The poppy, Latin-inspired groove of the acoustic guitar is designed to feel soft and endearing. And you’ll know it right away.
Icarus Phoenix – Agradecido
Similar artists: Drew Danburry, The Shins, The Strokes, Death Cab for Cutie
Genre: Pop Punk, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Seneca and Marcus Aurelius may have recommended that their pupils start living life as if they’d already perished. But they wouldn’t have made it far in pop music with that attitude except for, perhaps, some admiration from old goths stationed in Berlin nightclubs. Rock and pop music are, of course, to a large degree responsible for making people forget about doom and gloom.
But pop-rock also stands in stark contrast to the growing movement that is fascinated with human longevity. Sure, your favourite rockstars may be on all sorts of vitamins and miracle diets, getting ready for the comeback tours that are guaranteed to wreak havoc on your wallets. They won’t tell you, though. As far as you need to know, they spend all their nights drinking whiskey and driving motorcycles through their hotel rooms.
Icarus Phoenix would rather greet every single new day as a bonus round. That’s the concept at the heart of the gently morose “Agradecido.” Every new day is potentially perfect when you start seeing things in that way. Besides, the soft, emotional indie-rock that Icarus Phones works with, reminiscent of 2000s guitar bands, is the perfect vehicle for these types of memento mori ideas.
