“Dead Weight” by Pvris, Friday, August 18, 2023 (repost)
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Following the singles "Hallucinations" and "Death of Me" from the band's EP Hallucinations, Pvrisreleased the single "Dead Weight" from the third album Use Me. The band has talked extensively about their new sound, moving from a conventional female-fronted rock band to, well, how would you classify Pvris? Each song on Use Me could fit into the genre of Alternative, one of the loosest genre descriptions today. Whether it's the programed drums, the pop hooks, the noisy guitars, or the throbbing bass, Pvris is now a rock-inspired dark pop band, or duo as of now.
TAKING WINGS OFF A GODDESS. Of course music doesn't need to be neatly classified. I spend a lot of time thinking about what gets classified as Alternative, though, and it makes me think that my definition that I coined back in the early '00s was correct. At that time, I began to see rock bands that incorporating instruments and electronic programing that had not been in rock music before. There were groups like Linkin Park, Evanescence, and Incubus carrying the torch of a new sounds. Alternative music wasn't driven by a heavy guitar, but rather the guitar was added as embellishment. I viewed P.O.D.'s only Top 40 hit "Youth of the Nation" as an example of Alternative Rock. Rather than power chords driving the song, it's a hip-hop influenced beat with a guitar picking single notes which are held over the measure. Sure, this definition didn't explain the early '90s grunge acts (Nirvana) that are Alternative Rock classics or the punk-rock influenced bands the genre (Weezer or Green Day), but the diversity of these bands and how they expand the Alternative genre with other musical genres is another component to my definition. Put simply, Alternative is rock-based music that has, in some cases, evolved beyond the guitar.
DEAD WEIGHT HANGING OVER MY SHOULDER. "Dead Weight" is certainly one of the more straight-forward rock songs on Use Me. The song opens with a noisy guitar solo to which lead singer Lynn Gunn sings over. The song reminds me of the dreaded school assignment when the teacher says, "break up into groups," and doesn't monitor any of the students' division of labor. Some of the students end up taking on the entire project, while the "dead weight" students do nothing. Like the "Hallucinations," the video for "Dead Weight" was created by YHELLOW, a visual production company. In a typical Pvris fashion, the video for "Dead Weight" is trippy and even grotesque. It seems equal parts horror movie and redneck party song. The video depicts lead singer Lynn Gunn at the wheel of an old truck or possibly a hearse. Bassist Brian MacDonald sits, appearing wasted in the passenger seat and several women appear in the middle bench seat between Gunn and MacDonald, and these passengers seem quite inebriated. The video flashes to party sequences, dancing in a ghoulish ball, and eventually the guests, all members who were in the truck, begin snacking on Gunn's brain, illustrating the lyric "All give, no take," at its logical conclusion. What's the dead weight you have to get off of your shoulder?
On folklore , Taylor Swif t’s essential fall album, the singer delves into the craft of storytelling. While many of Swift’s songs tell stories, until her eighth studio album, most of those stories were about herself. Tales about “ betty ,” James, and Augustine could be a metaphor for the singer but it was quite refreshing to hear about other people in towns created by the singer. With Swift returning to making anthemic pop hits, the lowkey double album cycle has come and gone. “ The Last American Dynasty ” is a song on folklore in which Swift tells the story about the previous owner of her house. The song tells the story of the wealthy widow to the heir of the Standard Oil fortune, Rebecca “Betty” Harkness. It’s a kind of country song, romanticizing its subject and drawing parallels between Harkness and Swift, setting them up as outsiders unable to fit into the social classes they happened to belong to. THERE GOES THE MADDEST WOMAN THIS TOWN HAS EVER SEEN. Taylor Swift has b...
This July, as many American have celebrated Independence Day, I think it's important to look at different versions of the American Dream. Lana Del Rey 's 2012 record Born to Die examines " the dark side of the American dream " at times. While America is starting look more like it's Puritanical heritage with a little too much Flannery O'Connor and Homer Simpson pseudo-religiosity, the Northeastern secular world that Del Rey paints on her debut album seems like a world apart from a neo-conservatism. Del Rey's America is the America of Hollywood. It's New Yorkers who vacation Upstate in the summer and attend cocktail parties on the weekend. If they go to church, it's infrequent and not an evangelical version of Christianity. It's the America of the Jazz Age and the fifties. ALL MY FRIENDS TELL ME I SHOULD MOVE ON. But it's also the America of Mad Men. Del Rey has been criticized for sometime avowing an opposition to feminism. In 2014, the ...
This summer Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga made a huge comeback with “ Die with a Smile ,” which became a global number 1 hit . Last month Mars released another collaboration, this time with ROSÈ , the latest member of the girl group BLACKPINK to go solo. “ APT. ” marks Mars’ first K-pop collaboration, the singer was quite big in South Korea before teaming up with a member of one of the currently biggest girl groups. Just like “Die with a Smile,” “APT” has been a global smash hit, topping charts around the world, including South Korea and peaking at number 8 on Billboard ’s Hot 100 and number two on the UK singles chart. RANDOM GAME. BLACKPINK has been regarded as the biggest girl group in the world. The group, however, hasn’t made new music since 2022. Last year, all four members of the group re-signed their contracts with YG Entertainment and are expected to release new music next year. This year, however, has been about solo activities. This year has seen massive hits from 3 of ...
Comments
Post a Comment