Sculpture Club – Drive Too Fast
Similar artists: Soft Kill, Choir Boy
Genre: Post-Punk
Should a single be representative of a band’s body of work? No, that’s not an expectation we ought to have. In fact, listen to great 1980s radio singles, and with enough research, you’ll notice that most of those bands never captured the same magic again on their full-length albums. The single is often just a tease and not some full-grown promise.
No, what the radio must have is the power to send you to a different world for about three minutes. And it must do the same thing each and every time that you hear it. Yeah, it’s lightning in a bottle, and this is why it’s hard for even the greatest musicians to explain what they did on their greatest hits, let alone replicate it countless times. The ones that can do that are free to choose their country house next to Elton John’s or Paul McCartney’s.
No matter what Sculpture Club do from here onward, they would have got it right with “Drive Too Fast,” a single that not only brings to mind 1980s sounds but the loose, carefree feel of the best singles of that decade. There’s no reason to sit here and debate all of the ways in which this musically makes sense. There’s something far greater going on here. This makes sense on a radio listener level. It creates a mood, makes you invest in it, and won’t let you out until the check clears.
NOL K – Thorn
Similar artists: My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Pop Punk
Is social media just as real as any ol’ reality show? And, can you truly confess your deepest feelings inside of a pop song? The answer to both of those questions is “probably no.” That’s why young artists can’t rely on those things when learning how to communicate with the world. All you get from them is new haircut ideas and fashion trends.
Modern rock songwriters ought to be encouraged to go to public places and made to shout out the most embarrassing things about themselves. And don’t just make them do it once. This should be something they ought to be prescribed for months and months. Once they have exhausted the heaviest confessions related to the their childhood, their relationships, or wetting the bed, they are ready to write songs and perform them in from of strangers.
The core of NOL K’s “Thorn” is a desire to confess and do it in such a way that avoids embarrassment. This is rock music inspired by the emo-rock group of the 2000s, after all. It carries a similar punch, both musically and in terms of honest lyrics. Is this more than you are ready to hear? Good! It’s not the rockstar’s mission to make you feel comfortable. That’s your granny. As for “Thorn,” it’s enough to make you want to reconsider all of those 2000s emo-rock records and dig them back up.
