Marika Che – Please Can I Fail
World history is a marvellous thing to study, and you can be thankful you’ve spent most of your life outside of it. But, don’t keep reminding me about all the wars, the famines and the likelihood of spending all of my life as a slave, save for the luck of being born in a different era. The fact is that we’re all on edge with our current set of predicaments as it is.
Still, since you’re likely being given the opportunity at a better life than most other people in the human race, what are you going to do with it? And how many times must you get things wrong before you get it right? In a time where every improvement guru is teaching me what to do to win big, hearing Marika Che letting me know that I can still strike out felt freeing.
If anything, “Please Can I Fail” is not so much a song about doing things wrong on purpose, but a celebration of going out into the world and trying. Che’s clever lyrics reassure you that if you’ve not found yourself crying your eyes out in public in the recent past, you simply have been putting too much effort into it. And if the words don’t convince you, the anthemic chorus just might.
Band For Sale – Next Time Around
It’s ironic that your phone or television set would now include a feature that tells you just how much time in the day you’ve spent on them. It’s hilarious that it should mime being concerned, too. “You’ve just spent 15 hours straight watching Turkish soap operas. Consider eating an omelette, taking a shower, and calling your therapist!”
Your attention is the source of the modern world’s most thriving businesses. Actually, everyone hopes that you rarely end up prioritising yourself or the need for silence, dreaming and the use of your imagination. And why, who am I to tell you how to listen to your music? I can remember a time when records were the things that solved all of those problems for us.
Band For Sale remembers that era as well. “Next Time Around” is, in concept and execution, a song that honours the important ritual of sitting down with music and allowing yourself to get lost. Now, you won’t be able to get this with just any song. It’s the arrangement and melancholy-filled lyrics of “Next Time Around,” however, that get you on the straight and narrow. You need some time with yourself, and a good song is going to help give you that.
