Talon and The Van Pelt Reviewed
Talon – Britney Spears
Kids, provided that their parents aren’t truly horrific people, are the most adjusted people on Earth. Sure, they start out well, but rarely hold on to those qualities. Kids are the ones dancing for no reason, creating colossal stories inside their mind with no other purpose than the enjoyment of using their imagination, and behaving entirely naturally when they’re alone or out in the world.
But what happens? Why can’t we hold on to these gifts? It’s most likely due to the fact that we’re told we have to learn from others older than ourselves. And what do we learn? That we should try really hard to be different from how we really are, that we should disguise our character, that we should earn some of the frustrations that others have. Talon’s tried it.
And where has it gotten the artist? Fortunately, as “Britney Spears” is eager to tell us, the whole business of changing for the sake of others has brought her right back at the start. “Britney Spears” is a post-punk monologue about the struggle to fit in and the glory of being an individual. Frankly, it’s a revelation that too few of us have in time and quite a tune to boot.
The Van Pelt – Kris Is Riding Horses In Ojai
Artists tend to be the people who never answered the call to come back inside for supper. Eventually, the call stopped coming. And, when that happened, the little children stopped bothering asking whether they should be somewhere, doing some other things, answering to someone else’s rules. Artists tend to be the people who didn’t have time to give up on their dreaming.
Those are the kinds of folks that The Van Pelt champions. How can they not? These are the sorts of people that they were fated to become. They’re part of that group of rock musicians who have gambled all of their life force on a bunch of dreams. But what happened when they stopped to look back? Is this the kind of strategy that you can implement?
The post-punk-indebted production and the military-styled drumming may suggest things are tense. But, really, “Kris Is Riding Horses In Ojai” is an optimistic, post-hippie dream of a song. It’s a tune about taking the safe route through life, coming against disaster because of it, and needing to make the long journey back. As another hippie once said, “There’s still time to change the road you’re on!”
