
Yur Mum – Banana Republic
The worst thing about social media, cancel culture, and our selfish modern world, is that we’ve all become trained not to offend anyone in any possible way. How can rock n’ roll survive, let alone thrive in such an environment?
The second worst thing is that these paths lead to nowhere. The waves of indignation that are sparked by those pretending to be endlessly offended by every tiny thing, don’t lead anywhere. Their frustration quickly dissipates and moves towards a different target. As for the protests themselves, they are rarely focused on anything truly meaningful to elicit any kind of positive change.
Yur Mum’s Banana Republic cleverly assumes the reaction of this kind of public and serves them a political song in the form that they’re likely to understand best of all. This is a pop tune in everything except for meaning, even at one point going on to quote a famous Guns n’ Roses tune. Future protests songs may need to be written in code in order to get any sort of traction. Yur Mom is leading the way.
wayword – dead
The thing that I like best of all about modern music is that doesn’t need to make sense. Sure, I do think that protest songs are a very powerful tool in changing people’s attitudes. Of course, rock operas can be fascinating the witness and slowly dissect.
However, whether for the fact that music is an international language, or because rock guitars seem to touch something primal in the regular audience members, modern music does not need to make sense. It’s like a magic trick. When all of the pieces fit well together, there is nobody in the world that a good song cannot reach.
Now, it took me a wee bit of time to make out the lyrics to wayword’s great indie-surf-rock jam dead. But, this mattered little. What mattered is that the song feels like being pushed in a swing way too fast. It also matters that the melodies fit in perfectly, and the urgency of the performance is matched by tenderness. A really convincing rock tune that will get your foot tapping whether you’re a U.S. citizen, or a being from another galaxy.