You inevitably find yourself looking at images of the great martyrs of modern pop music, your Kurt Cobains and Elliott Smiths, and can’t help but feel a bit responsible. Weren’t your cheers, and everyone else’s, partly responsible for making them think that all they needed to do in this world to get by was to craft beautiful melodies and blend them with truthful lyrics? Well, damn!
From Sparta to Samurai Japan, there have always been places that have prioritized great discipline when developing the talents of the youth. But this approach has less to do with bringing out the best in them and has everything to do with getting them accustomed to the hardships and misery of the world. But, is anyone forced to sit in the rain every morning and salute, left with any dreams by the time they become adults?
“The World Inside” by The Iddy Biddies is a fascinating album, precisely, because it captures this group of virtuoso Berklee-educated folkies testing whether their collection of fantasies, gathered through years of intense dreaming and studying, can survive in this mean, old world.
Where exactly have all these dreams taken The Iddy Biddies? To a place where a Beatlesque melody, soulful, melancholic lyrics, and the ability to craft a sturdy pop-rock song should be enough to put the Universe to right.
Listen to the opening track, “Just a Show,” where over an arrangement that sounds like Stone Temple Pilots doing 60s retro-pop, The Iddy Biddies use Alan Watts’ philosophy of detachment as armor for whatever it is that awaits them.
And, indeed, for most of the track, the songwriters are split between calling it all a massive joke by the Universe, and feeling pressured to do something about it. “Mr. September” sounds like “Blood on the Tracks” era Dylan turning in a pop about the ephemerality of it all. On the indie-rock-inspired “Fortunate Sons,” singer Gene Wallenstein is forced to visit “the place where decency dies.” And, the murky, acoustic grunge of “Strange World,” with its subtle backing vocals, grieves for people’s ever-growing lack of isolation.
But there must be a reason why, regardless of the hardships, holding onto dreams is important. The title track, “The World Inside,” is impressively orchestrated with strummed acoustic guitars, piano arpeggios, and big, lingering chords. Most importantly, however, it also gives an explanation for all that endless fretting. As with Wallenstein’s heroes, The Beatles, or Elliot Smith, it’s all about love and the promise of it that helps create all these songs. That’s the armor The Iddy Biddies need to venture out. And, hearing this, these sophisticated, bittersweet folk-rock tunes come together, it’s hard not to assume that this should be enough.
