the IV – Eastern Promise
History was supposed to stop back in the late 1980s. The good guys, they were telling us, had won. They were never going to allow success to slip away from their fingers again. And, everyone, no matter how far away from the heroes of the story, was about to profit from these developments. But some weren’t entirely convinced by these stories. As time went on, people, just like the Norwegian musicians in the IV, began to express serious doubts.
It was natural for the hippies and dreamers of the 1960s to seek something different and to settle on Eastern philosophies as a guide. It was natural for every other generation after it to search out meaning and develop new ideas. And, yes, with so little going on in the places that “stopped history for good,” it was to be expected that each new dreamer would look elsewhere.
the IV’s “Eastern Promise” is a song of great disappointment and thin hopes. Over the tense post-punk groove and instrumentation, the singer talks of a world that’s filled with such good intentions and great plans that it’s absolutely heartbreakingly boring. Where’s hope? Must be far, far away. Must require a visa and a plane ticket to get to it. Norway’s the IV is filled with disappointment, but still dreaming. That’s more than the existing hippies are willing to do. Convinced? We’ll be waiting for you on an island in the Pacific for a while still.
partygirl – let’s go dancing
No, it’s not just you. Yes, pop music acts are becoming more forgettable. It’s not simply a matter of you having run out of mental storage. Their songs, the things that they talk about and even the band names are harder to remember because few of them want to take any chances anymore. Why do that when you’re advised that you can simply lift the sound and vision of someone else who has been successful?
People who’ve been in bands tend to get jobs in tall office buildings easily. Just like talk show hosts, they need not fear anyone remembering them. The members of partygirl, on the other hand, are hard to forget. They’re the Latin American dictators of the rock world. Applying for citizenship elsewhere and spending the rest of your life fishing is out of the question.
The band might insist you spell “let’s go dancing” in short caps. But that’s an inside joke. Everything about this group is loud, theatrical and easy to spot. Little musical real estate is left unused. And, frankly, once you hear this, you can’t imagine what the rest of the modern rock bands do with all of their time.
“let’s go dancing” is a coming-of-age story, a tale about discovering the world and it’s the sound of the kind of mental fatigue and confusion that accompanies such exploration. You’ll hear it, and you’ll remember it. As for playing it safe, you’d better forget about working in a tall office building.
