Soft Self Portraits – Departures
John Lennon write a few hundred songs before he came to the realization that every single one was about him in some way. In fact, the more he tried to fight, the more ego-driven the songs became. So, he stopped fighting in.
Every good songwriter seems to do that. On the other hand, you will, for example, be able to find heavy metal bands that write exclusively about fighting dragons, going to war, or facing their friends in a session of Dungeons & Dragons.
It’s not just that they are hacks. The problem is that these kinds of songwriters and their audiences will likely never accrue the necessary self-awareness to realize how ridiculous their approach is. If it’s not about yourself, your work sure ain’t about anyone else, either.
Soft Self Portraits’s “Departures” is ego-driven indie-rock and works just fine, relying on the self for inspiration. This is music that becomes interesting just as it starts to lose its footing, as it begins to drift through the imaginary, into the recesses of the mind where truth lies hidden.
Shiffley – Messenger Man
Nice folks get a bad rap, too. Sure, everyone wants to be their friend. They will be the people who get the call whenever one of their friends needs to move house and move some furniture. And, yes, they’ll also be asked to housesit and take your dog to the vet. They’ll accept all of those things, but even their most trusted friends won’t assume that they have what it takes to do something creative of much importance.
Using these stereotypes has real consequences. It’s stopped many nice men and women from trying. Who do they have to look up to besides Dave Grohl? Even kids who were in Disney movies end up in rehab eventually or have photos of them posted with needles sticking out of their arms. On the other hand, everyone assumes that nice people don’t have depth, that they don’t have much to fight for, and, thus, not many stories to tell. It’s a crying shame.
Shiffley sound as nice as people who’d like to sell you brand new braille Bibles. But there’s a darkness to “Messenger Man,” that you’re unlikely to realize is there in the first moments of hearing it. Move outside of the well-produced pop-rock of the song, the sweet melodies, and the agreeable demeanor of the musicians, and you encounter a tale of hardship and betrayal. You didn’t see that coming, did you? The next time a nice man or woman offers to do your laundry for you, assume they’re just trying to avoid getting home.
