Saint Luna – Voodoo Doll
Some people prepare their rock songs like some blunt weapon designed to inflict as much damage as possible, while others, like Saint Luna, assemble theirs like a swiss army knife. Voodoo Doll is the rare breed of the tune that can be everything to everyone, and this hardly feels as if it happened by accident.
It’s difficult to say exactly where Saint Luna draws the most inspiration from. Is it the John Frusciante style licks that dominate the tune? Is it modern indie production? Or, is the anthemic nature of the song reminiscent of rock social climbers like the Killers? Voodoo Doll’s recipe is to approximate the right quantity for each of these and stir them all together. It’s pop as indie-rock can get, but undeniable in its attempt to get the radio stations’ attention.
It’s a song designed to try and get stuck in your head from the opening bars containing great legato guitar licks. There’s a laid back attitude to the production certainly, but the choruses with their “Am I a voodoo doll?” line are as hooky as they can be.
Machiee – twenty twenty
Now that rock’s not busying itself anymore with selling truckloads of records or vying for the top of the charts. Fans have begun to take the thing very seriously. Most admirers have migrated their attention to one particular style or another, bravely defying poseurs on internet forums everywhere. Others write serious protest songs, while, even worse, some begin to explore the technical outer limits of the genres of their choice.
But, some of the very best rock music was, let us remember, silly, fun, and best left unexplored too deeply. The Ramones’ blitzed-out bubblegum fantasies seemed like a virtual revolution at the time of dinosaur rock. Nirvana played three-chord tunes while metalheads were assembling ever more complicated guitar solos.
Machiee’s twenty twenty, should you give it a fair shot, may be that kind of song. It’s indie for rockers who’ve heard as much hip-hop and novelty tunes as straight-up guitar music. It’s fun, quaint and very few songwriters could come up with something as catchy as this one. This is the sort of song you’ll love until the radios get a hold of it and it becomes inescapable.
