Ollie Twohill – Crisis
It’s “when” rather than “if.” The world, according to the majority of news outlets and modern prophets, is about to blow. How badly and what that means for the people who will be sitting around the explosion site is not entirely clear.
If you happen to believe in those kinds of things, the news should first make you feel a little lightheaded. But once you’ve shaken that off and got up, you’ll find yourself having to make some choices. Ollie Twohill has certainly found himself in this position.
The first option, adopted by most inhabitants of this planet, is to find a way to drown out the noise of the bad news. Distracting yourself from hearing the bad news is a method to go about things.
But the option that Ollie Twohill has adopted for “Crisis” is to stare at the problem straight on and to use one’s time for self-improvement. That’s one of the reasons why this song about the gracelessness of the age is so impressive. This is a DIY effort by a very capable-sounding Twohill, a 2000s-inspired track and yet a rich-sounding and poppy effort.
George – Elián
It’s all made up, and also very real! Online ads, blog posts and AI-made videos made on shady social media platforms all advise people to be wary of foreigners. Many go even further and actively encourage people to treat foreigners with hostility.
Rock’ n’ roll, even at its worst, was intended as a tool for good. And thus, we should have grown-up, clever, funny songs about this depressing topic. Sadly, you won’t hear many of them from the top-tier, major record-label-endorsed groups and singers. They’re too busy selling coffee and burgers.
But there’s hope. We can count on bands like George who not only strive to entertain, but to speak some sense to the world. After all, apart from places like Lithuania and Armenia, try and find a country where the population has been the same for even more than a few centuries, and we can start discussing how to kick out the people who just happened to show up.
George’s “Elián” is a story song as well as a modern-day manifesto. It tells the tale of Elián González, who in the late 1990s was involved in a much-publicised dispute surrounding immigration and the custody rights of his parents. The story fits the times, the song fits our need for entertainment, and, best of all, in charming fashion, helps us to consider just how ridiculous the whole thing really is.
