“Gold Teeth” by HIGHS, Wednesday, November 30, 2022

 

HIGHS is an indie rock quartet from Toronto, Canada. The band released a self-titled EP in 2014 and a full-length record in 2016 titled Dazzle Camouflage. The band released a single in 2021, but has been quiet since then. The band's only LP so far has received critical praise from the few critics that have reviewed the record. The record was produced by Depeche Mode and Foals producer Luke Smith, causing some reviewers to draw a comparison between HIGHS and the latter British indie rock group. HIGHS' Spotify page features a picture of a drum set, which seems to be apropos due to the band's interesting irregular drum beats in otherwise chill songs. 

YOU'RE NEVER GONNA GET IT RIGHT. Taking its name from an artistic technique in nature and implemented by the British Admiralty during World War I, Dazzle Camouflage is an engaging album, but its not one that hits all at once. I don't remember where I first heard it, but I'd imagine that the album found its way into my library after I Shazamed one of the tracks playing in a coffee shop. It's an album that I forgot about, though. As I listened back to the album today, many of the songs sounded familiar, though I don't think I spent a lot of time with it before. "Gold Teeth" is the final track on the record. It's not the lyrics that make the track stand out. In fact the lyrics seem to be camouflaged under the guitars, drums, bass, and even the vocal layering as kind of dazzle to make whatever the message of the song hidden in plain sight. Camouflage naturally occurs in nature to distract predators by making prey nearly invisible. When we think of camouflage, we usually picture dark colors or earth tones; however, sometimes camouflage mesmerizing predators. The predator is so distracted by the aesthetics of the camouflage that it naturally moves on.

YOU CAN'T BREAK ME UP. I don't know if "Gold Teeth" necessarily has an esoteric meaning to the band listeners who have taken the time to break it apart. But the title of the album got me thinking about the "Dazzle Camouflage" music uses to enter our lives. If you read my blog, you probably spend at least some time most days listening to music. In other words, you seek it out, whether on a commute, in the office, walking down the street, while cleaning or reading a book, or even taking some time at home to sit and listen. But music penetrates our lives through other forms of entertainment--tv shows, advertisements, the old man in the park who doesn't use headphones, at the grocery store, in a video game, or in a cafe. Often this music means nothing to us. It's music not tailored to your personal tastes and reached a threshold for mass consumption, a cliché in a film depicting something --stereotypical '70s high school, Vietnam War scene, etc. But sometimes a song in those situations dazzles you. It's that one track in a cafe that pulls you away from your book or a conversation and you wonder who sings this song. Still, you're probably not going to figure out the meaning of the lyrics at first. No, that will take some time at home with headphones and even then you may be hearing fragments, proscribing your own meaning to the lyrics. Sometimes it takes years to know the message that was there all along in front of you.

Read the lyrics on Genius.