
Meimuna – sous la nef
Similar artists: Pomme, Tim Dup, Feu! Chatterton, Tamino
Genre: Indie Folk
A lot of pop music, at least the little bit of it that still matters, is about the need to add some kind of spiritual meaning to a regular life. It’s like that because much of art throughout history has been about this topic. In fact, it used to be easier. Unless music or painting expressed a religious ideal in its most conservative manner, there was no possible way to showcase that work.
People have falled out of love with organized religion of the past century in Western countries. But the need is still there. It pushes people, especially young ones, into terrible things sometimes. Or, it makes them invest much of their time and wealth taking advice from someone who is promising them some kind of vindication.
Fortunately, for three-four minutes the best pop songs, naturally, have a glimmer of spiritual fulfilment. It’s just the way that some of them are built. Meimuna’s lovely “Sous la nef” is one of those songs, and he achieves this without much effort. The singer, like most listeners, is looking for hope and meaning. The song finds that in beauty and the great musical balance of the song reveals that to the listener. For the running time of the song, you will notice that you should be all right with the world. There’s a meaning to your search still.
Brookside Mall – NMFT
Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Rock
Folks who weren’t born in Britain or the States and, against the odds, wanted to play music had one very important decision to make early on in their careers. Would they sing the songs in the maiden tongue or take a shot at glory and use English, the language of pop music? For the vast majority of them, the choice was obvious.
Even though the vast majority of them did not achieve success outside of their country’s borders, sometimes not travelling even further than their hometown, singing in English was a way to connect their songs to the music of their heroes.
Years later, some of this has changed. The pop charts and the most important playlists have pop, rock, and hip-hop songs in Spanish, Swedish, and a whole bunch of other languages. It turns out that music, even when it is sung in a foreign tongue, really is a universal language.
Brookside Mall’s “NMFT” could just as well be in a made-up language. The Lo-Fi values of the band’s music render the lyrics almost indecipherable. But that doesn’t matter. You’ll hear the story and see it too by the way that the singer articulates every line, the way that the music swirls back and forth in dark waters of melancholy. A song about pawning off your guitar? I bet you felt that already before going to the lyrics sheet.