Language Games – Consumer creatures
Nowadays, you’re more likely to spot a ghost strolling through the crowds than to notice an ad for a soft drink commercial. Sure, the ad’s going to stick somewhere inside your head, and you’ll find yourself wanting to order a Coke for no reason further down the line. But the fact remains that, since you’ve seen so many similar ads, likely, since the day of your birth, you’ve learned to shut them off and go on with your day.
Most of us may have more impressive, shiny things than ancient kings of European monarchies. But we’re also getting the stress of having to choose that they never had, along with the feeling that we’re going to suffocate in a pool of plastic and rubbish.
Artists feel this tension more than many and have the ability to express these doubts better than most. Czech group Language Games has opted to do this, but it’s a brave choice. You won’t hear an anti-materialistic song from Coldplay, Sabrian Carpenter or any of the artists on corporate-endorsed mega tours.
“Consumer creatures” by Language Games is a beautifully moody guitar pop song about the way that we’ve lost ourselves to material pleasures for so long that we wouldn’t want a way out even if it were presented to us. The Czech band has a real knack for blending the bitter with the sweet and creating an anthem for a rich, but misguided world.
Blue John – Half Moon
If you’re a dedicated music fan, it’s hard to consider how many incredible songs, albums, and live performances have been stolen from us because the artists who could have made them simply got distracted.
And, let’s be honest with ourselves, it’s not like all the fantastic artists chose to become doctors and architects instead. Most of them never even got started, not being able to pry themselves away from their PlayStation, or their mission to watch all of the seasons of “The Sopranos” in one day.
Then again, it can’t be easy. Just while writing this review, I am fighting the urge to check the footie results and call my bookie. But there are others who need to isolate themselves from distractions even more. Artists, like the musicians that make up Blue John, may well find their greatest work waiting for them once they cut out all external noises.
Maybe that’s what Blue John managed to do on the “Half Moon,” a nocturnal, mysterious-sounding tune that feels like a cross between modern, sophisticated indie-rock and 1980s Dire Straits. More than anything, “Half Moon” sounds like music recorded by people who’ve voluntarily offered to seclude themselves inside a rehearsal room for a very long time. You can hear it in the texture of the playing, and you can feel it in the inner conflict revealed by the lyrics.
