Sugar For The Pill – Cherry Blossom
While I do prefer my rockstars old, grizzly-looking and successful, attending the programs that help them get over the habits they acquired on the road, I too can understand the appeal of the young star who’s only made available to the public for a minute.
Did James Dean make movies that appealed to his generation? Sure, a couple of good ones. Would he have made any more? Possibly not, but, either way, we’re, thankfully, spared from thinking about one. He represented fleeting inspiration, beauty and talent, just as Sugar For The Pill’s music tries to do.
Who knew that pop music was bound to hang around this long? Nobody banked on it, and that’s why, just like a Summer love affair, everyone who heard the first great songs enjoyed them as if they were going to melt away. But that’s the wisest thing to do. It’s the way that life tends to work.
Sugar For The Pill’s “Cherry Blossom” is a beautiful song about things working out, but only for a moment. It’s a dream-pop-meets-Interpol song that floats through the air like your heart when lifted up by the first hints of love. It’s also a song about the fleeting nature of the most wonderful things in life. Achingly bittersweet, Sugar For The Pill asks you to make a choice. Will you just stand on the sidelines because nothing ever fully works out, or enjoy it while you can?
Ruff Hunter – Punching Darts
A lot has been done for the glory of rock n’ roll and for the personal success of rock stars while using negative energy as a vehicle. The true nihilists are, for some, very charismatic. And isn’t charisma, really, what’s helped sell records more than anything else?
But you’ll have to follow their evolution. How many of them remain bitter and remorseful once they’ve tasted success? How many of them will answer the fans that they meet on the street that, really, there’s no hope. It’s something worth considering and an idea on which Ruff Hunter’s been fixating lately.
Because while everyone attempts to write poetry like Leonard Cohen and cut their hair to look like Jim Morrison, the world goes on. You can complain about it all you want and even preside over a congregation of followers. But will anyone repay you for wasting all this time?
Ruff Hunter’s Smashing Pumpkins-inspired “Punching Darts” is a tune about passing the time and all of the things that we might try to do about it. The composition isn’t afraid to tackle heavy subjects. Are we just fools for wasting time on our anxieties when the only constant is that nothing will be the same tomorrow? “Punching Darts” is a smooth-sounding, dreamy record about a topic so nightmarish that it should force you out of the house this very instant.
