“Florida” by Wild Pink: Honoring the Sunshine State
“Florida Man.” Spring Breakers. Zola. Jason Mendoza shouting “Bortles!” as he chucks a Molotov cocktail at a boat. Miami Vice, Hotline Miami, Scarface. For decades, much has been made of sunny Florida’s seedy underbelly, to the point where the Florida of our public imagination is nothing but underbelly. The Sunshine State stereotype holds that the […]
“Fake” by Chastity Belt Takes On the Clownery of Impostor Syndrome
Here are words I’m sure you’ve all heard before: “impostor syndrome.” It was first observed in successful professional women, but it’s significantly more widespread than that: people of all stripes doubt themselves, and live in fear of being exposed as frauds. Maya Angelou had it, Neil Armstrong had it, and I have it too. (This […]
“Madison” by Sloppy Jane: A Surreal, Empathetic Portrait of a Marginalized American
There’s a movie that came out a couple years ago called Greener Grass, and it came to mind when I was listening to this song. Greener Grass is a suburban satire about a nervous pushover of a housewife named Jill, who increasingly finds her picturesque life encroached upon by outside forces until she has nothing […]
“We Are Not Alone” by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Reconnects Us With Nature
My sister and I used to go camping with our uncle when we were young. Although my uncle was a very capable outdoorsman, we weren’t exactly roughing it in the wilderness; perhaps correctly assuming that there was only so much nature two bookish kids from Long Island could take, he only took us to the […]
On “30”, Adele Comes Into Her Own As a Songwriter
You’ve probably seen this clip before, but if you haven’t, I’ll summarize it. Adele has been entered into a contest for Adele impersonators. With the help of makeup artists, prosthetics, and gloves to cover up her tattoos, Adele is no longer Adele, but a soft-spoken nanny named Jenny. She commiserates backstage with the other Adeles, […]
Retrospective Review: “Flower” by Liz Phair
Here are the lyrics for “Flower,” the fourteenth song on Liz Phair’s indie rock classic Exile in Guyville. You can read them if you’d like, or you can just listen to the song. I’m doing things a bit differently for this piece, by putting the lyrics in a link and quoting where I can. This […]
Stella Emmett on “Beach House,” Frustration, and Poppy Menace
“Beach House,” a new song by the British singer-songwriter Stella Emmett, is theoretically a lark. Emmett’s melodies are breezy and light on their feet, and she has a coolly materialistic attitude that is both very funny and refreshingly no-bullshit. “I’m not in love with you,” she informs her sugar daddy, firmly but without malice. “I’m […]
“Touch” by Quinton Brock: Savoring the Things We Took for Granted
Even if you were never physically intimate with anyone, it was easy to miss touch during the quarantine days of the pandemic. It’s the little things you didn’t notice, or even actively disliked, before they went away for a while: the accidental touch of hands when giving someone a pen, the brush of elbows when […]
“November Man” by Allysen Callery: A Haunting Autumn Wind
November is a haunted month. October has Halloween, of course, but there’s a festivity to its spookiness, a celebration of that time of year when the days grow short and the leaves begin to fall. But the weeks in between Halloween and Thanksgiving are when the truth of autumn really starts to set in. The […]
Cate Le Bon’s “Moderation” Deconstructs Instant Gratification
“Everything in moderation” is as good a motto as any. To live in moderation requires a number of qualities all of us can agree are admirable: patience, restraint, frugality, responsibility, discipline, and so on. Moderation doesn’t just mean cutting back on drinking or fast food, either: it can mean having a healthy mix of activities […]
