Dead Freights – Who Said Scared
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: The Libertines, Dirty Pretty Things, Inhaler
Making a name for yourself in rock n’ roll, in any era, is primarily a game of intimidation. The tools most often used by the characters that populate this world are their charisma and knowledge of things that their audience members will likely never get to know on an intimate level. Or, at the very least, this is how they need to appear.
You see, the secret is that rock music that gets to be stars isn’t always in the mood. They aren’t all doing it for purely artistic reasons. Just like the would-be Casanova wooing a girl with his knowledge of romantic poetry, the modern artists know that their audiences are waiting to be seduced. And, so, they are always ready to provide them with this.
Dead Freights’ Who Said Scared is not just constructed to be a pleasant Brit-pop single, but the kind that will, fingers crossed, get people to obsess over the artists and words that they are uttering. It’s a pop song, it’s a poem, and it’s a trip to the tailors. This is all the effort that the songwriter went through that they’d rather you not see. And, judging by the sharpness of the hooks, this effort may well pay off in grabbing some hearts and fanatics along the way.
Plastic Harpoons – Diamond Wings
Genre: Folk rock, Alt Country
Similar artists: Kurt Vile, Houndmouth, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Mt. Joy, The Woods Brother
In rock music, it’s acceptable if you don’t sound too good. But sounding good sure does make life a lot easier. The great thing about various styles of rock and the scenes surrounding it is that they can be very accepting of people regardless of their musical aptitude. After all, with most sounds, it takes merely a few tries to have your ears be comfortable with it.
Indeed, there are a lot of great artists who possess wonderful ideas and who enter the rock world equipped with those and little else in terms of musical talent. For those, regardless of what you might have heard, it is an uphill battle. Imagine that not even John Lennon liked to hear his own voice singing. And, that guy used to be in The Beatles.
Therefore, it certainly helps if you do have those abilities. If Plastic Harpoons’ Diamond Wings did nothing else but reveal the great singing voice of the man in charge of delivering the words here, this would be a success. Instead, the band develops its pleasant, confidence, Kurt Vile-like indie rock. It’s the kind of sound that feels like it walks crooked, like a drunkard on a Saturday night. And, in recent years, it is also a sound that festival crowds really go for. Imagine what can happen when you marry it with this kind of singing voice.
