Lucius - Good Grief

Changing up the format again, Guy (the one person who reads this blog). His name is actually Guy. It turns out that so many people are still trying to understand what the internet is that the release dates are not very accurate.

With so many "soft-releases", piece-by-piece singles  designed to facilitate a "hype cycle" over an extended period of time and other methods of distribution. Believe it or not, out of all the annoying ways people have been experimenting with content distribution, I think Kanye is getting the closest of anyone. And I still haven't heard one track from Life of Pablo.

But the idea of recognizing the constant state of disarray that is reality and manifesting that not only in the final output of art, but allowing the final output of the art to be the process that is creating it.

Wait, I know this sounds like it could be the "statement of purpose" of some modern artist painting a room blue and stepping on oranges.  But consider that this is the essence of the commodity of live shows, theater, reality TV. People pay for a "consumable" product that is ostensibly, the privilege of watching the artist(s) going through some sort of process "in the moment".

Isn't this also the nugget of inspiration that spurs something like 30-seconds to mars broadcasting them in the studio recording a song for 24 hours? When the commodity, itself loses value the only thing left is to commodity the process.

Another great example: Twitch.tv

I said all of that to say; The only way to "keep up" with all the releases is to find out as much as possible about the records that are supposed to be released and if they seem interesting, make a note to check back throughout the year. This actually will simplify the process. Maybe it will allow for some of these lyrics to make their way onto the web, as well.

I'm looking at you Skull Crusher Fuck Sword.

Lucius
Good Grief
Feature Track: My Heart Got Caught on Your Sleeve
Deep Cut: Almighty Gosh
Keep Listening: Born Again Teen
Rating: 5

Don't know how to start thisNo I don't know what to say
They seem to fall out of the sky
Lost and found is all the same

This sums up nicely, how I feel about this adventure every time I start a new record. Especially when they are definitely going to be good. This is one of those that caught my attention with a lead single and I have been checking back regularly waiting for it to hit streaming.

The lyrics above are from the fourth track, My Heart Got Caught on Your Sleeve. This song exemplifies the songwriting sensibilities of this album. Early 80's synth feel with the warmth and engagement of the newer evolution of this kind of pop sound. Some people give it a lot more bass (Phantagram), but the idea is the same. driving, dreamy synth pop. The new masters of this style now how to leverage the predictability and preciseness of automated looping to produce beds of musical sound that is not exactly "quantized", even though I'm sure that much of it actually is "quantized".

This lends itself well to songs about anxiety, fear and restlessness. Gone Insane is a good example of this, the bed is slightly off sync but with the relentless and perfect repetition of production, studio, or pure live talent, the off-kilter background becomes a foundation for the story. A story that is about the degradation of some sort of social interaction. It gets pretty dramatic at the end. But I think we all feel like this from time to time.

Almighty Gosh kicks off the "third act" and the tone of the album shifts noticeably here. For the first time there is the level of distortion and bass-nastiness that I expect from this style. I like. Born Again Teen keeps up the pace. I was drifting towards a middling rating until 1:40 in this track. The vocals kick up, there is a high-pitched whine that develops and then is joined by total noise junk that epitomizes the "Quantized-Unquantized" sound. (Q-U)?

By the time Born Again Teen has finished, the genre has been redefined for me, much as Phantagram did for me a couple of years ago. Things are happening here. Unless the last two tracks drop the ball, this is a solid 5.