
Rainy Day Cacophony – Old Mining Town
Rainy Day Cacophony is your true friend. He has no time for pleasantries or trying to spare your feelings. He tells the truth bluntly and in a way where you can’t help but react.
Those set of values are brought into Old Mining Town. This is the kind of song that could easily be a Bruce Springsteen sketch, his first try at a single, the one in which he tells it exactly like he means it.
Musically the soul of the tune is a country-rock stomp devoid of pretension. Getting listeners to be attentive to the lyrics is, most likely the agenda. They talk of the burden most of us have to carry, the unforgiving nature of the modern world and greed. The imagery of working down a mining shaft fits in perfectly. And, frankly, Rainy Day Cacophony is right. Misery really is the river of the world.
Paper Tapes – You & I
As a fan of punk rock, I too am guilty of occasionally thinking that all you need to make music is those damns “three chords and attitude”. This is an old-fashioned concept, though and one that doesn’t really tell the story of all the work involved in making a great piece of art. Punk is about resourcefulness and ambition towards making interesting, daring art.
Judged on those principles, the dream-pop unit Paper Tapes is as punk as anything in 2020. You & I is a languid, lo-fi tune that moves slowly and confidently, proudly boasting all the bedroom-studio trickery involved in making it.
It also comes equipped with a knock-out music video that perfectly encapsulates the mood of the song. The character in the video goes on about his day in a chic but deserted house, with the group’s music perpetually set as his guiding sound. Whoever directed this piece, truly got Paper Tapes.