Draff – Lead Me Around
Similar artists: XTC, The Teardrop Explodes, Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Who
Genre: Jangle Pop, Psychedelic Rock, Alternative Rock
The key to the greatest music ever made is held by people who commit fully or don’t commit at all. Everyone else is stuck in the middle and thus not working on any particularly important legacy. Those mad enough to try out the previously mentioned two strategies may just launch themselves on the way to greatness.
The ones with commitment issues put their full faith in spontaneity. For them, music is not something to be conquered. It’s a treasure won a long time ago and used in whatever way they see fit.
However, the ones that are dedicated to learning music’s intricate secrets believe instead in the alchemy of sound. They trust that their tireless studying will get them closer to an undeniable truth.
Draff’s “Lead Me Around” sounds unsubtly like the work of people who have spent years of their lives stuck inside a room studying pop-rock music. Such scholars are not uncommon in jazz or classical. But when their talents lead them toward using electric guitars and a set of drums, the results get really interesting. “Lead Me Around” is a jangly, power-pop track with jazzy qualities, not unlike the transcendental work of The Teardrop Explodes.
TANDM – Sirens
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
TANDM makes the kind of indie-rock that feels like it was written and performed solely for the purpose of being heard by a small, handpicked audience. Too bad for them that the whole world might want to eavesdrop.
It’s hard to find a good friend these days in real life. But some of the folks who might truly be able to understand you are still making music, writing books, and indulging in creative activities of which you can be a part. It may not be as comforting as telling your worries over a freshly brewed cup of coffee, but it will do.
Pop songs, just like the rest of the world of modern entertainment, tend to be quite predictable. Regardless of the style, a song that gets played on the radio will tend to flow exactly in the way you’d expect. With songwriters so busy with using formulas for their work, capturing emotion becomes merely an afterthought.
It’s hard to know what might have happened to TANDM on the day that they wrote “Sirens,” but it couldn’t have been an ordinary day. Their warm but melancholy-filled guitar-pop sound captures a vigour and innocence that can’t be codified and repeated. These are the kinds of songs that beg to be played repeatedly, the kind of personal truths that end up having universal meaning.
