Sunkicker – Deeper Water
I’m not sure how much control we’ll ever be able to wrestle back from the internet, or technology as a whole. Still, I like to fantasise that there will come again a time when the world won’t be able to know anything about me, and I won’t be able to learn about most of it.
I am particularly preoccupied with music. That’s, of course, a personal concern. But, I can’t help but remember how much more enjoyment music used to give me when I knew nothing about the band that I was listening to, other than whatever it had decided to print on the cover of their CD, vinyl, cassette tape, or digital recording.
I know nothing about Sunkicker, and I want to keep it this way. It’s not like I suspect anything bad. Quite the contrary. I think that the single “Deeper Water” captures them at their best as artists and dream-prone human beings. It’s the kind of single you might expect to be dazzled by in the past, while hearing it from a passing vehicle before it disappeared forever. It’s a pure alt-rock recording, and the mystery only helps keep it this way.
OK Goodnight – 22
There’s a case to be made that most modern rock bands have on hand more technology than NASA could have relied on when first attempting to plant a human on the moon. Have you seen one of those tiny refrigerators used as a spacecraft?
And, while there will always be a need for songwriters who murmur stories over acoustic guitar lines or the simplest of piano chords, the world has learned that it can be properly entertained.
OK Goodnight fit into a tradition of alternative rock bands that: A. Leave the aggression just underneath the surface so that all types of audience can enjoy the music, & B. Make pop-rock music that is as flash as a rocket flying out into space.
That’s why “22” is not a subtle piece of music. No, it’s an exercise in pop virtuosity, a technological wonder and a very entertaining single. OK Goodnight is playing for the Big Stage.
