
Jamboree – The Snow
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Car Seat Headrest, Oasis
Making art and getting others to take it seriously is all a bit of a swindle. In that regard, Malcolm McLaren may have got it right. Audiences simply won’t listen to an artist’s lamentations or cries of joy unless there’s something in it for them.
It’s the reason why almost all pop songs have choruses and hooks. It’s also the reason why, for the most part, Hollywood actors are impossibly good looking. It’s the equivalent of needing to buy a stranger a drink before you can offload your life’s story.
Jamboree may be doing just this on the hopeless, but melodically appealing song The Snow. It’s a song of despair, or rather to relinquish one’s hopes voluntarily. But, it just sounds so pretty, with a lovely hook and a guitar that mimics the blizzard. Jamboree are kings of the pop single misdirect.
GOODING – Don’t Look Back
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Like winning the lottery after guessing only a couple of numbers, rock songwriters face good odds. Sometimes the really good songs seem to write themselves. Other times they don’t arrive at all. It’s enough to make most young artists gamble and shake the tree of creativity.
Why do some songs simply arrive fully-formed? Perhaps, it is because pop music already has such a rich history from which one can draw. Or, maybe, it’s because of the primal nature of the style. Songs are forced into existence, occasionally, on energy alone.
Whichever it is, this has worked for GOODING’s Don’t Look Back. Here’s a bluesy glam rocker that sounds as if it always existed. Ballroom Blitz drums and gloomy tales of getaways are the song’s backbone. Did it just drop into the lap of the GOODING trio? Sometimes the very best writers are lucky as well. Go figure.