There is little new under the sun when it comes to fashion. In the '00s, '90s fashion of flannels and winter bubble vests gave way to a '70s revival: Bell bottoms or flares, replaced the straight-leg Levis; bold colors replaced the subdued primary colors of the '90s; and gimmicky accessories like bandanas and hoop earrings made a bold statement. Some novelty fashion trends also came back, enter the mood ring. On Lorde's 2021 record Solar Power, the singer wistfully remembers relics of her childhood in the early '00s in the song "Mood Ring." Lyrically satirizing the disconnection of the modern world, the acoustic guitar producer Jack Antonoff plays throughout the song harken back to the early '00s pop music.
YOU CAN BURN THE SAGE, AND I'LL CLENSE THE CRYSTALS. Discussing the first single Lorde dropped fromher third album "Solar Power,"Switched on Popguest Hanif Abdurraqid argues that Lorde isn't a "singer-singer but rather a deliverer of language." Lorde's voice is low and "gravely." With average lyrics or melodies or mediocre vocal delivery, Lorde's voice would have never become the trend-setter that she has become. However, all of those factors are there with Jack Antonoff's co- production and instrumentation. Similarly, the songs on the record are only credited to Lorde and Antonoff and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/engineer Malay on two tracks. Unlike many pop writers today, Lorde's imagery evokes specific, sometimes awkward images. The penultimate track, for example, "Mood Ring," interweaves lines about transcendental mediation and the early '00s. It reminds me of the New Age trends that were strong on daytime television and on the front covers of tabloids in the check out lines. The lyrics are heightened by Jack Antonoff's acoustic guitar that drives the song almost like Nelly's "Ride Wit Me," but the cheap-sounding electric guitar effect sounds like some of the lo-fi indie music produced in the early '00s and even found on some big budget pop records of the time. What's interesting about "Mood Rings" is that Antonoff holds back on the production. He and Lorde produce the track to be rhythmic, but Antonoff refrains from bringing out bigger beats to make the song radio-ready. Instead, we have a psychedelic pop track that is more vibe than bop or banger.
DON'T YOU THINK THE EARLY 2000S SEEM SO FAR AWAY? But speaking of the early '00s, I may be in a minority of Lorde listeners who simply see the title of the song and think about another song from 20 years ago. Lorde may have not been aware of Relient K's problematic 2003 track "Mood Rings," a satirical song in which the speaker plots "to get emotional girls to all wear mood rings [so that men] can be tipped off to when they're ticked off." The song was a fan favorite, and by their third record Two Lefts Don't Make a Right. . . But Three Do, the band's popularity was branching out of youth group. Lorde's "Mood Ring" deals with how a media-saturated society makes us apathetic to what should be a good life, more in touch with nature. Relient K's "Mood Rings," however, bypasses the issues of complex emotions, making a joke at the expense of the band's female fans. Last year, after being called out on TikTok, the band apologized for the song, saying "We had a lot of growing and learning to do, still do!” Of course, Relient K was not the only band to employ casual misogyny--pop-punk and other genres of the early '00s were rife with it. Lorde's track, though, captures a feeling of the early '00s--definitely not the Christian youth group feeling--but leaves the sexism out!
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 ...
Last year, I listened to a podcast introducing artists who sound similar to another artist to help lesser-known artists expand their fan bases just to hear some takes that the commentators had to say about another artist I was preparing to post about. I didn't actually end up writing about that artist, but I inadvertently discovered a few new artists to add to my AppleMusic library, one of which was Filipina-British singer-songwriter Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus , better known by her stage name beabadoobee . BUILDINGS AND RUST. With over 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify, bedroom pop singer beabadoobee opened for Taylor Swift last year on a leg of the Eras Tour. Laus is just one of many artists that Swift was probably introduced to through a rumored ex, The 1975 ’s Matty Healy . Born in Iloilo City in 2000 and relocating to London with her family at the age of three, Laus was influenced by indie rock from an early age. At the ag...
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