lissten

[lissten]

Waiting for The Weeknd

The history of enigmatic R&B superstar The Weeknd

The Weeknd is my go-to. Don’t know what to listen to? Put on The Beauty Behind the Madness. Going out and feeling like a badass? Play Starboy. It’s pregame music, feel-good music, don’t mess with me music. The Weeknd was, always for me, that enigmatic shadow in the corner -- always there but never fully understood. His lyrics were always vague enough that as a listener, I always felt one step away from who he truly was. Everything was beneath a shroud of drugs and sex and alcohol and self-destruction. 

That is until My Dear Melancholy, blew my image of the artist out of the water. Knowing his relationship with ex Selena Gomez, every song on the 2018 EP is heart wrenching in its specificity. As a celebrity, living in the public eye, we know who that someone else is in “Wasted Times”. It feels like a friend in pain, that ghost in the corner coming into the light and screaming his pain for the world to hear. 

The release of My Dear Melancholy, was the first time I finally understood Abel Tesfaye as a person -- and not as the untouchable figure that I believed had been intentionally cultivated for marketing reasons and for the artist’s own privacy. Before this moment the closest we got to the raw openness of Melancholy was the drug addled, post one-night stand “Tell Your Friends”, which felt like a painful self-defense. Halfway through Abel reveals that he and fellow Scarborough, Canada resident La Mar C Taylor (not Kendrick, as it could be misinterpreted) would “rob a n*gga for his Jordans” in order to get enough money to buy cocaine.

Scarborough is regarded as one of the most dangerous districts of Canada, just east of Toronto. Tesfaye’s parents settled there after immigrating from Ethiopia in the late 1980s. Abel Tesfaye rose to prominence quickly, but just as I felt the absence of Tesfaye’s own identity in his music, the beginning of his career was marked by anonymity. On Feb 24, 2011, under the username “xoxxxoooxo”, Tesfaye uploaded his first song to YouTube. Two weeks later he changed the name to The Weeknd. So called he says on Reddit, because “I left home when I was about 17 dropped out of high school and convinced Lamar to do the same lol. We grabbed our mattresses from our parents threw it in our friends shitty van and left one weekend and never came back home.”

The Weeknd’s debut mixtape House of Balloons, was met with critical acclaim, and later that year was noticed by fellow Ontarian Drake, who shared Tesfaye’s music with followers on Twitter. Working under Drake’s guidance shot The Weeknd out of cult fame and into the Billboard Hot 200 chart. 

I will always be confused and intrigued by Tesfaye, my ambivalence fueled by his refusal to share the intimacies of his personal life, yet becoming an artist who can simultaneously create music that cuts to the core of his listeners beating hearts. For now though, whenever I need him, I’ll keep on listening. 

Left: Drake, Right: The Weeknd

[lissten]

Interview with the Artist: MaeThePirate

Maeve Higgins just arrived in LA after a week of solo-driving across the country in her mini-van. After settling down in her new city, I got in touch and asked a few questions.

In what ways do you think Montclair [New Jersey] shaped who you became as an artist?

I had some of my best and some of my hardest times in Montclair, I think every artist has some sort of sentimental attachment to their hometown, and Montclair is that for me. There are so many musicians in the area, all who are so devoted to their craft, and I hope one day I can give back to that community. 

Musical influences? What artists inspire you?

I am inspired by artists like Walk The Moon, Jon Bellion and AJR. I love pop like the Chainsmokers and Charlie Puth. I have so many inspirations I’ve tried to be like, but I realize that everything I write will always be an amalgamation of everything I hear. I’ve been particularly inspired by Ariana Grande, and her openness in being truly herself in all her music. 

You’ve only been in LA for a little while now, but have you found anything inspiring musically? 

I am inspired already! My roommates are all musicians, and they go out to “jams” in the area, which I have yet to attend, but hearing them strumming their guitars in the apartment we live in is so exciting. I’m really in a city with so many opportunities, and I can’t wait to go out and perform. 

What about your drive across the country? Did you find anything sonically interesting in Yosemite or in all those hotels along the highway? 

Perfect example actually, when I was in Yellowstone national park, I took a bunch of samples on my phone using voice memos. There’s a common sound effect in music called a riser, or a “whoosh” to bring in new sections or create tension before a drop. An easy way of doing this is with a waterfall sound that fades in, so I made sure that I recorded every brook, or at large waterfalls from a distance. I actually already put them in a song I’m working on and am excited about it. 

I’m really interested in your sound musically— you often mix your classical cello with a much more modern electronic pop sound and I find it very unique— was this something that came to you naturally or did you have to work to find that sound? 

That came naturally, I would be feeling inspired in my room, and piano was never enough to express, so I ended up grabbing my cello and improvising over my own music, eventually making full blown parts. 

Speaking of your cello, you’re classically trained and recently graduated from music school. What was the most influential part of that experience at school for you? It can be anything; personal, educational, something you learned from the physical experience of being in Boston? 

In Boston, I learned the importance of being confident in yourself. In a place where everyone is all trying to be the best they can, competition is high. A lot of times people will only have your back for personal gain, which ended up actually making me write more music! College can be tough, but it teaches you keep your head up and stay true to yourself.

Speaking of truth, MaeThePirate’s new album The Honest Truth was released last month. You can find her on Spotify and iTunes.

[lissten]

Tyler Okonma’s Life of “Odd Future”

Exploring the hip hop scene of LA through Tyler, the Creator and his Loiter Squad

Tyler, the Creator

Tyler, the Creator is one of those asshole celebrities I’m both endlessly both fascinated and frustrated by. He’s undoubtedly talented, a triple-threat in music, fashion and television, and yet he’s a horrible person. Tyler has had his fair share of controversies, none of which should be taken lightly - but then he releases something like Flower Boy, a piece of art which I cannot help but respect. Even the never-ending saga of Tyler’s ambiguous relationship with his sexuality, which he references multiple times throughout the Flower Boy album, and mentions in his art and on twitter fascinate me -- I could write a whole essay on internalized homophobia in the hip hop world alone. But I digress. The fluctuation between articulate artist and chaotic evil makes me want to know where Tyler sprang out of. What place, what person, what machine could have possibly spat out this entirely full-formed artist, someone so completely in control of his art and aesthetics?

Let’s be anthropologists for a moment, shall we? Tyler, the Creator was born Tyler Okonma of Ladera Heights, California -- and I bet if you know anything about him, you’ve seen these two words next to each other: Odd Future. Anywhere Tyler goes, Odd Future goes. 

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, shortened simply to Odd Future or the seven-letter acronym OFWGKTA was a hip hop collective formed by Okonma in 2007 with friends in Los Angeles. The ten-member group has been called the new Wu-Tang, exploring genres of underground, hardcore and alternative rap. Another successful figure to come out of OFWGKTA is Frank Ocean, of Blonde fame. Ocean debuted in 2011 with nostalgia, ULTRA as a member of the Odd Future collective, and made multiple appearances on Okonma’s debut studio album Goblin. 

All Music says of Odd Future, “The crew’s crude sense of humor and confrontational subject matter earned them a huge underground following, and put them on “top artists to watch” lists.” OFWGKTA has grown with Okonma, appearing as cast members of his Adult Swim skit comedy show “Loiter Squad”, reaching meme status with their “Happy Birthday B*tch!” sketch. 

(video contains explicit language)

Okonma never forgets about his roots in OFWGKTA, bringing along best friend and Odd Future member Jasper Dolphin for Vice series Nuts + Bolts, where they learn about anything and everything under the sun that Tyler finds interesting.

Though the collective was rumored to have disbanded in 2015, there’s still traces of Odd Future in his work. The track “November” on Flower Boy makes reference to “those Odd Future Sundays”, as the happiest time of their lives. While Okonma has moved on from the Odd Future clothing brand to work on his own line Golf Wang (a take on the Odd Future Wolf Gang) and collaborations with companies like Converse and Suicoke, the heart of Odd Future is still there. And as Tyler, the Creator slowly returns to making music after a short hiatus following the release of Flower Boy in 2017, the legacy of alternative rap and Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All returns with him. 

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All

[lissten]

Setting Down in Mitski’s Sad World

Tackling love, obsession, and need through Mitski’s all-powerful “Geyser”

Mitski owns my heart. Admittedly, I’m one of those people who have a new musical obsession every month or so, but in this latter half of October, my soul belongs entirely to Mitski Miyawaki. All I want nowadays is the raw feeling of being torn apart by music, I want it embodied, I want to want nothing else. Mitski does that for me; her haunting, all-encompassing rock sound tears me up inside. It’s exactly what I want in this interim of seasons, right before Halloween and the full brunt of autumn, when I’m feeling all morose and sentimental. But you know, I also think her music is making me more dramatic than usual.

Mitski, as she is mononymously known, is the 28-year-old Japanese-American singer/songwriter who has amassed a cult following for her powerfully dark lyrics and intense, rock guitar sound. Her fifth studio album Be the Cowboy, is the expression of her undying desire for creating music. Her voice cries out with the authenticity of her need. "Geyser”, the 2:24 minute intro to Be the Cowboy, is just that. “Geyser” revels in its intensity; the full, all-encompassing synths of the first three verses breathe, they bleed and crackle into a computer error that wakes listeners from their trance. It is a sound that comes from within Mitski’s soul.

I think “Geyser” is the successful synthesis of Mitski’s being, especially considering that on Be The Coybow she goes beyond her traditional mode of strict indie rock, and delves into other genres (sugar pop being the most surprising. Though, being Mitski, she does so with an intention to satirize). 

“Geyser” is split into two main parts. The first three verses keep grounded in their origins of choir music, they remain faithful to the genre as to echo the reverence which the artist holds for her life – her choice of genre matches Mitski’s idolatry of her music – it becomes her god. The first full minute of “Geyser” is simply dedicated to illustrating through lyric and instruments the artist’s reverence for the art. The lyrics mirror this as well, the choral, cult like chanting of “You’re the one I want/ You’re my number one/ You’re the one I want/ And I’ve turned down/ Every hand that has beckoned me to come”.

The morphing, organic synths undercut the voice, turning Mitski’s vocals into part of the instrumental – she becomes engulfed into her obsession and we understand her wish to be owned by it, to do nothing else but create music.

In an interview with NPR Mitski reveals that “Geyser” isn’t about something as sinister as obsession with a partner, as it might appear on first listen, but rather it is about her relationship with her music, that she is nothing without it. "I will be whatever it needs me to be,” she says, “I will do whatever it needs me to do in order for me to continue to be able to make music."

I think this is one of my vaguest songs. Usually my songs have a narrative of some sort. But this song is all feeling. I hesitate to say what it’s about just because once people find out what it’s about they might find it unromantic. I wrote it about music or just maybe a music career or an ability to make music. 

The choral influences of verses one through three are brushed aside in the chorus and following outro. Hard hitting electric guitar, drums and synths leave the choral vibe and enter into an all-encompassing desperation to match the lyrics. Upon first listen, the song may seem like it is about over attached romantic love.

As we move into the chorus, marking the second section (which strangely doesn’t appear until halfway through the song), we already understand Mitski’s dedication to her lover, yet the instruments which gather in momentum as the drums and electronic guitar rise, expressing her pure, unadulterated need for this release of emotion.

Though I'm a geyser

Feel it bubbling from below

Hear it call, hear it call

Hear it call to me

Constantly

And hear the harmony

Only when it's harming me

It's not real, it's not real

It's not real enough

In my opinion, this track is best heard with headphones at full volume, to allow for full immersion into the world which Mitski creates. This song is the entrance to “Be the Cowboy”, and in three minutes will lay claim to you with the same brutal hand as the day Mitski wrote it.

[lissten]

A Look Back at Beychella

revisiting Beyoncé’s world-stopping 2018 Coachella performance

If I could travel back in time and experience anything for the first time again, I know it would be the thrill of Beyoncé’s Coachella performance in April of this year. And I was only watching it through the livestream. 

What made this performance so spectacular, in my opinion (more than the live marching band, or the huge troupe of dancers and performers) was Knowles’ auditory language. Beyoncé and her creative team created a collage, not only made of the artist’s own music, but a juxtaposition of images: of man and woman, black and white, weakness and strength. Knowles encompasses both identities at all times; she is the most disrespected person in America, and she is the lion. Knowles makes use of these kinds of call and response throughout the entirety of her two hour set list; moving between different modes of language and music to reach the effect of total immersion for her audience (both the in person, and on screen). Knowles makes use of her own voice – occasionally distorted - as a call to action for the audience: Pay Attention to What I Have To Say. 

The raw power Beyoncé exudes in patching these sounds in next to each other, the effect of the phantom voices of Malcolm X, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the whole of America’s disenfranchised black community in her reprisal of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, rings through her audience: I am Black. I am a Woman. I am here, I am proud, and though you don’t like it, still I will say: I am Black I am a Woman I am Here I am Proud.

Here’s one one example of call and response between Knowles and the ghostly finale to Malcolm X’s “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?”:

The most disrespected person in America is the black woman,

I am the dragon breathing fire,

The most unprotected person in America is the black woman,

Beautiful man I’m the lion

Beyoncé has been criticized, most shockingly I think, by prominent black feminist bell hooks for her sudden co-option of the feminist rhetoric during promotions of visual album Lemonade in 2016, accusing Knowles of using the term “feminist” as a marketing tool, a way to seem more appealing to new audiences and demographics – much of the sexualized black bodies and violence in Lemonade left hooks feeling that Beyoncé was promoting hate and a regression of gendered relations into violence (most notably in the video for song Hold Up, in which Beyonce swings around a baseball bat, threatening husband Jay-Z for  cheating on her). But I felt none of this disingenuous feminism in her performance at Coachella.

We must remember, Knowles is the first black woman to headline a music festival. The first in Coachella’s eighteen years. Beyoncé knows this; and in her embodiment of absolute power, she reminds us of who she is. She dresses as Pharaoh because she in Queen, because she has earned her place as one of the highest paid performers to ever live. She claims what is rightfully hers. 

When I watch Beychella (as it is coyly termed by Knowles’ fans, the Bee Hive), all two hours of it – costume changes, dance interludes, and all – something happens to the audience. We leave feeling stronger. Knowles’ unwavering confidence makes me stronger. She asks me, “Are you a strong woman?”

Of course she brings her family along; Knowles welcomes to the stage Jay-Z for a performance of "Dèjá Vu”, sister Solange joined in to dance on stage, and former Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams were welcomed back for a medley of the greatest hits.

Knowles also welcomes a family of new faces, I like to think of them as her royal court: the members of BDK (that’s Belta Delta Kappa), Beyonce’s version of an HBCU marching band, color guard, and step team. They all wear yellow and black, the uniform of the Bey Hive. They scream: We are here, We are black, We are all together.

[lissten]

OUTSIDE OF ENGLISH: A PLAYLIST

a curated playlist of songs beyond america and the english speaking world

For the past year or so, I’ve found some of my favorite music from artists who’s lyrics aren’t even in English. Though I knew it was impossible, I thought I had tapped American music for all it was worth, that I had wrung it like the proverbial towel. My first foray into the international music scene was through French Yéyé, Françoise Hardy to be more specific, and the even older master, Edith Piaf. After the French was a further trip east, into Asia -- more specifically into Korea, where I heard the now mega-famous Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS, for short) a.k.a the most famous boyband in the world. They’re great, but I’ve omitted them from this playlist strictly for the sheer size of their audience. Below is the culmination of my findings, my favorite songs from artists around the world. You can listen along to the full playlist on Spotify.

TRACK 1. O SHIT || jóiPé x króli

This is for the American hip hop fans. JóiPé and Króli are an Icelandic rap duo, popular mostly in Reykjavik, but I found them online. I’m only familiar with two of their projects (Gerviglingur, my favorite, and their newer Afsakið Hlé). For these guys, the lyrics don’t really matter to me, it’s more about the feeling. If I ever want to feel like I’m on the way to blow up a bank, I know who to turn to. 

TRACK 2. RETRO FUTURE || Triple H

It’s somewhat unusual for a Korean idol group to be so far out of the realm of modern pop music that they hit the 1990′s, but it’s even more unusual for one to freely be so sexually explicit, much less homoerotic. Triple H could be one of my favorite international groups for just those reasons alone, but their music is great too. As is traditional with k-pop, they interweave English lyrics for the purpose of international marketability, but I always find Triple H to do it in such a way that it feels natural. Even their sample of Mr. C’s “Cha Cha Slide” doesn’t feel gimmicky, it just feels cool.

TRACK 3. 파도 THE WAVE || 새소년 Se So Neon 

I found 새소년 Se So Neon through the recommendation of Kim Namjoon (coincidentally, the leader of BTS). “파도 The Wave” has become one of my favorites. Unlike Triple H, who was bred with the intention of having international appeal and thus must include English lyrics , 새소년 Se So Neon feels more authentic to their brand. Their music is something to get lost in, and I find “파도 The Wave” never gets old. 

TRACK 4. TITÁN || Buscabulla

I first time I heard “Titán” was in early April of this year, on Buscabulla’s second EP, appropriately named EP II , which is comprised of four tracks each as strong as the last. I find “Titán” to have the most personality -- just those opening notes get me, the intake of breath from singer Raquel Berrios. Buscabulla is the only group in this playlist to actually live in the US. Berrios and her partner Luis Alfredo Del Valle are both Puerto Rican, they live in Brooklyn. 

TRACK 5. LUCY || (wetter)

If you can’t tell so far, I’m fond of the sound coming out of South Korea. (wetter) is quite possibly one of my favorite groups of all time. They’re relatively unknown, fewer than 10k followers on all of their social media, but their music is amazing. I need everyone to know about them. 2017′s Romance in a Weird World is great for any occasion, and last week they released the new We’ve Lost, What Now?. The video above -- a live version of “Lucy” -- was the first thing I’d ever seen from them. The pulsing red lights, the heady bass, the smooth vocals; I really think the music speaks for itself, but I’ll still say it. I love them.

TRACK 6. 貧乏なんて気にしない (Binbounantekinishinai) || KOHH

Another one for the rap fans. I first heard KOHH from the boyfriend of a high school friend. It was on a night clouded by conversation, but I still remembered this song. Another of my friends called it “hardcore depressed Japanese rap”, which I think is accurate, but not at all in a bad way. KOHH has energy, it’s palpable. “貧乏なんて気にしない” is just one of those great songs I can’t get tired of.

TRACK 7. The Unknown Guest || DEAN

I always like ending playlists with something you could fall asleep to. DEAN is another artist to come out of Korea, focused mainly in R&B and rap, but “The Unknown Guest” is quiet and gentle. It lives on my “calming” playlist, and after the high energy of JóiPé, Triple H and KOHH is something we all need to bring us back down to earth. 

This game I’ve created for myself, finding new music from artists further and further from me, has become one of the best things to happen to my taste in music. It pushes my boundaries, and I wouldn’t have found half of my favorite tracks if it hadn’t been for that. And I’ve yet to find the perfect French indie-folk group, but I’m still on the search.

(a/n: tumblr has a 5 video limit for a post, so I wasn’t able to add all of the videos, but I linked them all in the title for their section.)

[lissten]

“Nina Cried Power” & Hozier’s Conflation of the Wicked and the Divine

(left: Mavis Staples, right: Andrew Hozier-Byrne)

I think we all remember the cultural moment that was 2013′s “Take Me to Church”, the music video that inflamed many over its commentary on the rise of organized hate crimes against the LGBT community in Russia. The video was raw and terrifying in its reality, and it was powered by the lyrics and vocals of Andrew Hozier Byrne, now known simply as Hozier. Since its release, the video has amassed over 230 million views on YouTube, and the artist himself has released two EPs and the self-titled album “Hozier”. For the first time in four years, he is back with the unstoppable “Nina Cried Power”.

In his debut, Hozier established himself as an artist and lyricist working within the particular realms of “religion, sex and death”. That’s what made him so controversial in 2013, he uses the styles of traditionally religious music genres (gospel, blues, etc.) as avenues through which he discusses the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, and the thinly veiled dealings of his own sex life.

Hozier’s conflation of what is seen as the wicked (sex, gender, homosexuality) and the divine (organized religion and the aesthetics of the Gospel) in his lyrics establish a precedent of themes that continue throughout his music. Co-opting the forms of soulful gospel and blues which surrounded Hozier in his youth, he turns them against themselves, used instead in a message of freedom and protest.

In the new “Nina Cries Power” EP, he returns with an entire army. At his core, Hozier writes music for the oppressed minorities of Ireland, of which he says in an interview with The Cut, “I suppose it was growing up and becoming aware of how you are of a cultural landscape that is blatantly homophobic... if you see racism or homophobia or misogyny in a secular society, as a member of that society, you should challenge it.”

“Nina Cried Power” is the title track on the EP and the only to receive its own music video. It is a rallying cry, an ode to famous activists and artists of the past: Billie Holiday, John Lennon and Nina Simone, to name a few. Hozier enlists the inimitable activist and gospel legend Mavis Staples to help him on the track.

My personal favorite is track two “NFWMB”, Hozier’s “love song for the end of the world”. Likening his lover to a God, Hozier basks in the glory of their power to bring the end of days (his metaphor for the bedroom). It is authentic and haunting.

“Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue)” finds its origins completely in the blues which surrounded Hozier in his youth. The lyrics feel dirty for how much he plays with religious imagery, it is artfully explicit, and the inherent holiness of his voice only fuels his affront to the Church. 

Again he likens his lover to God or scripture, but uses brash, explicit language that feel like a slap in the face to God. This continues from the themes in “Take Me to Church”, using religious imagery to work through the hypocrisy of the religious institution. The guitars of “Moment’s Silence” feel more earthy, closer to the ground than was previously shown on the EP so far. Whereas “Nina Cried Power” is gospel in the high heavens, “Moment’s Silence” is digging your heels into the dirt, crying for God to show Himself.

Hozier works from the broad to the personal, each song on the EP working closer and closer to home, until you’ve reached the artist’s heart. 

We end with “Shrike” so named for the small carnivorous songbird that impales its victims on the spike of the acacia tree. The last words of the EP I think really speak to the theme of Hozier’s music

Remember me love, when I’m reborn

As the shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn.

The thorn, his lover, is beautiful and always dangerous. While his lyrics prove to be a sexually explicit at times, and almost facetiously so, it all feels like an act to protect what the artist find truly sacred: intimacy and love in its most vulnerable state.

[lissten]

PEACH PIT: A REVIEW

“Alrighty Aphrodite” and the garage-band guys you thought were cool in high school

The aesthetic of Peach Pit’s musical vernacular was born somewhere deep beneath in the ocean; in a clam shell, if you want to get really specific. “Take a seat back in your clam shell” – the first words sung by front man Neil Smith after thirty seconds of relaxed bass, percussion and electric guitar – open to the soothing landscape of Botticelli’s poised Venus moments after her birth.

Such is the dichotomy found throughout much of Peach Pit’s discography: a laid-back, pleasantly refreshing sound interrupted (or perhaps coexisting) with odd, almost grimly dark lyrics, often times appearing through extended metaphors. The band even describes their sound as “chewed bubblegum pop”, a fitting representation of this contrast between light instrumentals and heavy lyrical content. The representation of this duality reaches its peak in the new music video for “Alrighty Aphrodite”, the fourth track off their 2017 album Being So Normal. In keeping with the horror aesthetics of the Duffer Brothers’ 80’s homage “Stranger Things” and the 90’s handheld “Blair Witch Project”, Peach Pit creates a nightmare-scape for their audience’s first visual representation of the otherwise gentle “take a seat back in your clam shell”.

Both the lyrics and video live in a nostalgic past, a dark underworld, rich with its own gods and demons; it’s like sitting on the curb outside your parents’ house at midnight, waiting to chase down monsters; it’s wanting to find something dangerous at the edge of town. Peach Pit’s vibrant lead guitar, thanks to member Christopher Vanderkooy add an innocence to the track which might otherwise have been too deeply rooted in its antagonistic lyrics to the speaker’s “Aphrodite”

If I’d known you sold on maybe I’d a let you waste another guy Well Alrighty Aphrodite Go whip that red for other eyes

Smith laments the loss of a love-interest – maybe his Aphrodite was to him emotionally what the visual transmits to the audience – a high level of discomfort, and an inability to look away. Aphrodite’s central quality is certainly the latter. And the song’s disgust with her would account for the former. So are we to assume that disturbing, Blair Witch-esque demon-show music video was the writer’s inner turmoil? I suppose so. Pop Culture’s current obsession with the 80′s might have something to do with that as well (Hey, Nostalgia Pendulum!). In a similar way that Peach Pit’s earlier visuals harkens back to 80’s and 90’s high school nostalgia (”Seventeen” and “Drop The Guillotine”), “Aphrodite” makes use of the same cues as “Stranger Things”; using motifs of 80’s horror to engage their audiences earliest memories of fear.

None of this is to say that I don’t like Peach Pit, I do. I like their curated white-dad vibe, and I genuinely like their music, but moving beyond a casual listenership reveals a darker side to their cul-de-sac personas. I attach these same nostalgic sensations (sitting on the curb at 12am, the coupling of fear and excitement, the inability to look away) to Peach Pit themselves. And while I’m not sure if this was what the group was hoping to deliver through the song or even their project as a whole, it gives me something: an ambivalent memory of innocence. Just like beautiful Aphrodite straight from her clamshell and into existence, Peach Pit delivers a picture of deceiving innocence, and I’m not quite sure how to look away.

You can find Peach Pit on iTunes, Spotify and BandCamp.