"Typecast" by Hidden Hospitals, Tuesday, November 23, 2021
In March, I wrote about the track that comes directly before "Typecast" on Hidden Hospitals' 2018 album Liars, "Pulling Teeth." Liars is the second LP by the Chicago-based progressive rock band. Singer Dave Raymond started in a short-band called League in 2004 before joining a band called Damiera, a math-rock band which evolved into another band called Kiss Kiss. Finally in 2011, with member changes, Hidden Hospitals was ready to release their debut EP. The band's co-founder, guitarist Steve Downs departed before the band recorded Liars. With only Raymond left on guitar, the band experimented with synthesizers throughout the record.
TELL ME A STORY I'VE HEARD BEFORE. "Typecast" picks up the pace from "Pulling Teeth," which is an engaging song too. The heavy guitar of "Typecast" and the somewhat irregular drumming sound like they are playing competing rhythms, yet somehow when Raymond sings his quiet lyrics within the layers of sound, the song seems to even out. Like "Pulling Teeth," "Typecast" works in several metaphors, cliches, and mental images that take a bit of listening to make sense. The meaning of the term typecast refers to actors who are only cast as a particular role, often because of their excellence portraying that role or the actor's performance is so culturally linked to that role, the actor cannot be cast in any other role. However, the song seems to do little with acting. What we have instead is a singer who lucidly tell his faults as a lover. The tone of the song is so sharp and biting that it seems that actually the partner of this lover or even an outside perspective is pretending to be the singer. "Typecast" sets up a truly toxic relationship in which the singer wants control to the point where he even controls the level of spontaneity his lover is allowed to bestow. He says, "A scripted romance is half full of heart." He tells his lover to "Tell [him] a story [he's] heard before / One where [he] knows the ending." The lover is instructed: "Show me the moves I've loved you for, but nothing else." The singer can't help but admit that "I'll leave us broke[n] beyond compare / Terrorize your safest thoughts / I'm not the one you think you love."
KICKING A DEAD HORSE THAT KICKS BACK. I'm reading a book called Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (박상영), and the toxic relationship in this song reminds me of the relationship between the protagonist and an older man who is extremely controlling. The protagonist says of this man, "He saw me as someone to teach and change." How doomed are relationships based on trying to change a partner. How toxic they become when manipulation enters the equation. When someone isn't allowed to be him or herself, when you have to hide aspects of yourself to get your partner to love you. When you can't express your love in a way that is natural to you, only in a way that pleases your partner. When you become a typecast actor or actress to please your director, it's a scripted romance that's only "half full of heart." In the early phases of a relationship, we are on our best behavior. We spend money like there's no tomorrow. We dress up, keep well groomed, don't eat anything that gives us gas. But at some point, when things get real, we can no longer control ourselves, and we shouldn't have to. Yet, some may find themselves in a "scripted romance" longer than natural. But a partner who scripts the romance is especially dangerous to the actor's wellbeing. "You're looking for a ghost, you gotta give it up" and get out of that situation through couple therapy or just leave.
Comments
Post a Comment