#Frances Quinlan

[weirdstuffinthewoods]

Music in I Saw the TV Glow

Possible spoilers ahead so read at your own discretion (I’m bad at determining how much information is too much)

I’m a firm believer that one of the most important facets of I Saw the TV Glow is its soundtrack. I don’t know if Schoenbrun has an uncanny ability to track down music that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of teenage ennui or if they’ve just got really great taste. Seeing this in a (mercifully silent) movie theater really let the soundtrack form an immersive layer around me, and the moment the first notes hit, I was 15 again. Unsure of myself, extroverted on the outside but barely connected to my insides, and feeling like I was just playing a role I’d molded from what I assumed people wanted of me. The dreamy, atmospheric chords that wound around soft lofi voices with only a guitar or a keyboard called to the part of me that wanted to connect but didn’t know how.

There’s something to be said about the order of songs on the soundtrack, although it’s been awhile since I listened to an official soundtrack that was a compilation rather than a score so maybe changing the track order isn’t as radical as it feels. For now, I’m just going to talk about a couple of songs, although I’m sure as I listen obsessively to the rest, I’ll have way more to talk about.

Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl by yeule

We start with the opening credits song that haunts my TikTok fyp, Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl. This is a cover of the original sung by Broken Social Scene. The original has a whisper quality- repeating lyrics over a simple acoustic melody with strings rising in the background as the refrain starts. It feels like a girls’ garage band of the grungy 90s, almost the vibe we need but not quite.

The covering artist, yeule, is a nonbinary Singaporean who is said to “…incorporate elements of ambient, glitch, and Asian post-pop…” (Wikipedia) which makes this version much better suited to an analog horror about 90s TV nostalgia. In yeule’s version, the same acoustic melody opens to a new beat made up of interchanging robotic and static tones, while in the background, strings wait for their chance to swell in the space between the verse and refrain. It sounds like an android is slowly waking up to be this jaded pop singer who’s just existing at this point, not living. The lyrics are the same as the original, and speak of someone that’s changed, either the singer or maybe a friend that left them behind.

You used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that.

Now you’re all gone, got your makeup on and you’re not coming back.

Bleaching your teeth, smiling flash, talkin’ trash under your breath.

Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me.

In the context of the film, it feels like the crisis of identity both main characters face. This isn’t my home, you’re not my dad. The memories don’t feel like they’re yours, they belong to someone else. You’re different now, but also you know you were different then, and you’re only different now because you’re hiding in a disguise you hate. And, at least in Owen’s case (depending on your interpretation of the film’s ending), you’re not coming back. You’ll just dream about the person you know you are because you’re too far into the mask to find them again.

The bass joins in on the refrain and the ambience grows with glitch noises interspersed throughout. A strange sort of beauty begins to show and blooms when the drums kick into the chorus. You’re a teen again. It’s raining, you’re like Owen in the car, stretched across the backseat and staring at the ceiling, full of a feeling you can’t name that’s so much more than just being bored.

On TikTok, this song has become associated with a trend of kids, all much younger than me, sharing their stories of transness that was rejected by the people in their lives. A lot of them have detransitioned for safety and comfort, what little they can find by pretending it was a phase. It’s what drew me to this film, because the piece reflected their state of just physically existing in a world they don’t feel is theirs. For a lot of them, this film gave them hope or gave them new determination to make space for themselves, and I love that about it.

Another Season by Frances Quinlan

Immediately after this, we jump to the closing credits song that plays to a theater full of sobbing patrons who got it and laughing patrons who didn’t, Another Season. The jump is jarring, especially when you’re driving away from the theater in a throat-closing rush of tears (ie: me) and you’re brought straight from the introduction of this neon haze that is the suburbs to this fuzzy, pink screen that watches you come to terms with what you’ve just seen. The static breaks to silence except for a soft, melancholy acoustic melody. A soft voice speaks as if to a friend, and the chorus repeats, “If this isn’t over, what else could take shape? How will you remember it?” In the moment, especially post-there is still time, it feels like a call to action as you leave the theater crying. What could happen next? How are you going to remember your life? There are definitely multiple interpretations to this film, but I wanted to feel hope at the end, so for me, putting this song over the credits felt like Jane saying, “yes, it’s scary, and I’m leaving you to wonder what happened to Owen, but what we aren’t going to do is wonder what’s going to happen to you because there is still time.”

There’s so much more to look at in the choice of music and its juxtaposition with the visuals, but I’m going to leave this here for now with the opening and closing. Suffice to say, go see this movie. Support indie film, make the journey, it’ll be worth it if this resonated with you (but also why did you read this?? I’m sure there’s at least one mild spoiler in here).

[lakesandquarries]

i’m so autistic about hop along btw i love them SO much. if you’ve never heard them please please check them out espif you’re a fan of really visceral, kinda esoteric, almost story driven lyrics. tbh i think mountain goats enjoyers would probably like them! frances quinlan has such a raw energy to their voice and they’re not afraid to let their voice crack or go rough.

personally i think “waitress” might be my favourite song for the way frances sings this part

because on paper they just seem kinda. ???? but hearing them and the emotion in frances’s voice is absolutely breathtaking

or another fave is bruno is orange and this piece

which i’ve actually heard used on tiktok which makes me glad because hop along deserves recognition and this part is so!!! the whole song is about the singer trying to protect their lover from being punished for the two of them being together—i’ve seen some people read it as a young girl with an older man but i personally think the idea that its an interracial couple makes more sense specifically because of lines like this. the mother warns her daughter that the world is unsafe—but the mother is the one causing harm.

i could write essays about hop along okay they’re just. its so goddamn good. like okay another thought is the repeated motif of “strange to be shaped by such strange men” in bark your head off, dog, as a lyric that appears in multiple songs—i think it’s just not abel and what the writer meant but i might be wrong. but the fuxking THEMES and hold on i just thought of aomething

(first screenshot is from “sally II” from their album get disowned, second is from “not abel” from bark your head off, dog)

the repeated motif of talking to G-d and the question of why this person. in sally II, a random nobody who lives alone, who no one notices is dead until two days have passed; in not abel the very first murderer.

i’m rattling the bars of my cage i’m feral i love hop along so much 😭

this is so disjointed and i’m sorry i just need more people to hear them!!!! will rb this and add links to some of their music

[zombiesinflannels]

Did you hear about that mother? Broke her daughter’s legs in two and said, “It’s too dangerous out there to walk, so I had to save you.”

Bruno is Orange • Hop Along, Queen Ansleis & Frances Quinlan

[dansepants]

Another Season

New scrapbook page, ignore my mousepad.

[tuuneoftheday]

Frances Quinlan - Another Season

[maturefruitboy]

omg chat im the #1 and #2 listener for hop along (the first one is frances quinlan, second 2 are hop along, queen ansleis, and hop along

ignore my dead name i didn't feel like covering it because that'll give ppl incentive to find it lmao

[just-call-mefr1es]

AND NOW I CAREEEE

AND NOW I CAREEEEEE

AND NOW I CAREEEEEEEEEEEEE

NOW I CAREEEEEEEE

[threetrenchcoatsinatrenchcoat]

i'm sorry to Frances Quinlan and your (i'm sure objectively beautiful) song Another Season i will only ever think of it with betrayal and desperation as the sign that I Saw the TV Glow had ended

[trueblueboygenius]

via Lucy's instagram story!!

[slackwire]

Song of the Week 05/10/2024

Frances Quinlan - Another Season

I'd kill for new Hop Along at this point but I'll take this gorgeous new Frances Q song in the meantime

[squidnoises]

We work in our caves We live in the dark

And I know you do too

I know you do too

[01-3406-0413]

good god, this house

get me away

[queermusicforsadgays]

Painted Shut from Hop Along

Released May 2015

[maturefruitboy]

this song is actually amazing best song ever fr