Yuppie – A Place To Call My Own
It was inevitable that this was going to happen. The moment that country music replaced the blues in American pop songwriters’ repertoires, eventually, melancholy was going to have a Southern twang to it.
This wasn’t always this way. Even back when Dylan or the Byrds brought country stylings into pop-rock tunes destined for the charts, this music was, for the most part, an art form focused on celebrating and remembering. There was hope and pride in C&W.
But things have changed. The modern indie rock groups who bring a touch of country into their music do it to express some regret that can’t quite be defined, but that never fails to make itself known. When a band like Yuppie fuses country with modern indie rock, it is to express the fear that nothing will ever be the way it should have.
In fact, there are two ways to hear “A Place to Call My Own.” The first, if you’re in a hurry, is to have it sound like an easy-to-enjoy indie number of the likes of Kings of Leon has been promising to deliver back to us for years and years. But, the other way to listen to this is with tears in your eyes, and your hand on the phone trying to locate the numbers of some of the friends you’ve left behind a while ago. Both methods are valid, and that, perhaps, is the greatest gift that country-tinged songs can bring to the world.
Florentenes – Madeline
If you remain, like many have, a devotee of British rock music, you may be excused for thinking that all that people back on Limey do is complain. After all, post-punk singers have been trending for the past few years, and the majority of their lyrics seem to be about how everything is rotten, how the weather is terrible and how the Royal family is useless.
But, listen! The English aren’t as hard to please as one might assume. They only need a few things to achieve happiness. They want to see England finally win the World Cup for real. Surely, they want someone to fix the problem of not serving beer on the flights to Tenerife and the South of Portugal. And, most importantly, they want a young indie-rock band that they can be proud of.
It’s quite strange that there haven’t been many proclaimers to the crown of Best British Indie Rock Band in recent years. Alex Turner may be calling it a day, and people in Sheffield can’t stop their panic attacks. But, wait. Maybe there’s hope. Florentenes is a guitar band that understands the importance of youthful enthusiasm, punchy guitars, and melodies that could be sung by the football terraces. Will they write the great next three-minute single? “Madeline” is certainly the band’s attempt at it and an encouraging step in the right direction.
