Mixtapemotions

  • "Adore You" by Harry Styles, Thursday, July 13, 2023

    There are not many songs that get the promotional treatment that Harry Styles‘ “Adore You” received when Columbia Records released the second single from Fine Line in 2019. Before the single was released, a Twitter page title “@visitedora” appeared.  Then a website for the fictional tourist island appeared, though it wasn’t advertised as a fictional location. There was no place to book a ticket and Google Maps wasn’t able to find the location. 


    WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? Harry Styles released a trailer for “Adore You” on December 2, 2019 and then dropped the single and music video on December 6. In the music video, Styles treats viewers to a storytelling video about a boy (played by Styles) who is rejected by the residents of the small island, Edora. The boy befriends a magical fish, saving the fish from a fish market. Along the way, the “Adore You” music video introduces viewers to a number of colorful characters who live on the gloomy island.  The experience of watching “Adore You” feels like watching a film adaptation of young adult novel you didn’t read: you don’t expect to get so drawn into the story, but something about it keeps you engaged. The themes of the video about feeling like an outsider and looking for love, even if it is in the form of a magical pet are well executed that viewers forget for a moment that the story is fiction. Furthermore, the moody setting of the Eroda, filmed on several Scottish islands, though far from what many of us want on a summer vacation, but by the end of the video, I’m looking at tickets to northern Scotland.
    WALK IN YOUR RAINBOW PARADISE. Musically, “Adore You” blends a futuristic synth with throwback disco. It’s upbeat, but it’s longing due to the minor key. As Fine Line‘s second single, “Adore You” has a tone of introspection, although the song’s upbeat nature feels a bit contradictory in the emotional arch of a break up album on a first listen. It’s not a tearful track, but it is a reflection on potential one-sided love. On Fine Line, “Adore You” directly follows “Watermelon Sugar,” which is a much more upbeat song and precedes “Lights Out,” which is a substantially slower song. I generally think of Fine Line as a summer record, but the release of “Lights Out,” “Adore You,” and “Falling” in the colder months as well as the album’s December make me reassess my judgement on the record. And even though “Adore You” mentions “summer skies,” it feels cold. But with the rainy season in Korea, the weather reminds me of the music video, damp, sticky, but somehow a little upbeat because it’s not so cold outside. So, however your summer is shaping up, revisiting the many moods of Fine Line is never a bad idea.

    Live on Graham Norton:

  • “Boyhood” by The Japanese House, Wednesday, July 12, 2023

    Last month, The Japanese House released their long-anticipated follow-up album to 2019’s Good at Falling. The solo project of Amber Mary Bain, The Japanese House collaborated with a number of musicians from Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon and The 1975‘s Maty Healy and George Daniel to MUNA and Charli XCX on their latest project, In the End, It Always Does. The English singer-songwriter Amber Bain offers a hybrid between the acoustic and highly processed, like if Bon Iver recorded and produced Joni Mitchell. It’s simple. It’s zen. It’s nice music for a rainy or slow humid summer day.

    I’M STILL LOOKING OUT FOR ME. Before releasing In the End, It Always Does, The Japanese House released the lead single, “Boyhood.” The instrumental direction of In the End, It Always Does feels less processed than The Japanese House’s earlier work. Singer Amber Bain had talked about using The Japanese House to mask the person behind the music. I’ve written about many solo artists who take on a band’s name. Some groups started as a band but eventually, all members drop out until one member is left, like in the case of Years & Years. Some artists use a band name to give the illusion of a band. Some genres respect band names more than solo acts. I think of Washed Out and Anchor & Braille as these artists. In this case, other musicians may join for a time, like the local musicians who joined Stephen Christian on his first two records with Anchor & Braille or how Ernest Greene‘s wife sometimes performs with the singer. Still, other solo acts take on a name to distance themselves from a potential “Fame Monster” they create. The Weeknd and Lady Gaga as well as Lana Del Rey feel like they were curated singers to have a life much bigger than the singer. These artists hold publicity stunts to distract from the low-key life of the artist.
    I SHOULD HAVE JUMPED WHEN YOU TOLD ME TO. When Amber Bain invented The Japanese House, the singer talked about wanting anonymity and figuring out her gender expression. I must note that I using the pronouns she and her because that seems to be the singer’s current expression of gender. I will try to update the post if I find out that I am mistaken or if the singer wants to change pronouns. Androgyny was the singer’s original artistic expression. While Bain was hiding from the spotlight, fans of The 1975 saw Maty Healy’s involvement in the project and even speculated that that it was Healy singing with processed vocals. Of course, this is false and Bain eventually revealed that she was the sole member of The Japanese House. Today’s song, “Boyhood,” also plays with gender expression. Bain told BBC1 about “Boyhood”: 

            “I was thinking a lot about how I don’t really feel like a woman or a girl, and so it’s
            strange [be]cause I grew up as a girl and I didn’t have a boyhood. I was sort of
            thinking about that and how different I might be if I’ve had some sort of boyhood
            or I’ve had some different things happen to me in my life. The song itself had a
            hundred different versions of it and I feel like I’ve had a hundred different version         of myself that could’ve existed and it’s about like accepting some of those.
    Today, gender expression is so controversial. It feels as if conservative society is pushing for a binary uniformity, pushing people to embrace a primal archetype. And that’s not even how I grew up in what was supposed to be a more conservative time. What is the threat of people expressing the gender they feel is true to them? I think a song like “Boyhood” offers the first-person narrative that is always left out of the conservative straw-person arguments.

  • “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis, Tuesday, July 11, 2023 (partial repost)

    In 1996, Welsh singer-songwriter Donna Lewis released her debut single “I Love You Always Forever.” The understated, delicate pop song became an international hit. In the United States, it hit number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, unable to take the top spot because of multiple versions that counted as Los Del Rio‘s version of  “Macarena,” the dance track that plagued ’96. Lewis never matched the success of her debut single.


    SECRET MOMENTS SHUT IN THE HEAT OF THE AFTERNOON. Donna Lewis wrote the song “I Love You Always Forever” basing it on a 1953 novel, Love for Lydia by Herbert Ernest Bates. The lines from the chorus “I love you always forever, near and far closer together” appear in the novel, and Lewis’ original title for the song was “Lydia.” While Lewis had a few other minor hits, such as “At the Beginning,” a duet with Richard Marx on the 1997 song for the Anastasia original soundtrack, “I Love You Always Forever” is the singer’s signature song.  The lush imagery in “I Love You Forever and Always” transports the listener to a “cloud of heavenly scent,” to a “windless summer night” to “the heat of the afternoon” or simply to look into “the most unbelievable eyes [you’ve] ever seen.” The success of the sentimental ballad shows that music despite whatever musical trends do, soft rock ballads with sappy lyrics can always pierce through the hipster trends. And because of musical trends, “I Love You Always Forever” has been covered several times in recent years. Today, I’ll talk about two covers from artists I have written about several times: Mike Mains and the Branches and Betty Who.

    YOU’VE GOT THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE BLUE EYES I’VE EVER SEEN. Mike Mains & the Branches released their cover last year and is their most recent single. After an emotionally taxing record, When We Were in Love in 2019, “I Love You Always Forever” is a nice check-in with the couple whose marriage was tested by events mentioned in the record. Betty Who’s version was released as a single between her debut record, Take Me When You Go, and her sophomore record, The Valley. The single was so successful, though, that Who decided to promote the song as the lead single from The Valley and include it as the fourteenth track of the record. Who’s version topped Australia’s airplay chart, reached the Top 4o in New Zealand, and topped Billboard’s US Dance Club Songs. Who told Spin about why she chose to record the song. She said, “It’s one of those songs that you don’t know, and when you hear it you go, ‘Ah I know this song.’” She went on to say in Vogue that she remembers the song being “everywhere” when she was 5 years old in ’96.  Mike Mains’ version adds masculinity to the track, but Who’s version adds sensuality absent from the other two versions. The harmonized a cappella starts with soft, yet sharp vocals piercing the song combined with the music video in which Who is part of a throuple adds a bit of naughty with the nostalgia. Not there’s anything wrong with that. However, if you prefer to spend your always and forever, with Lewis, Mains, or Who, you’re bound to have this song stuck in your head and only pleasant thoughts of summer afternoons flooding your thoughts.

    Donna Lewis version:

    Betty Who version:



    Dance version from To All the Boys I Loved: 
    Mike Mains & Branches version: 



     

  • “Glue Song” (remix) by beabadoobee ft. Clairo + Fresh (Apple Music Edition), Monday, July 10, 2023

    Almost a year after releasing her second album Beatopia, beabadoobee released a new single called “Glue Song.” The song became a hit on TikTok and a month later a remixed version was released with Clairo. Bea had toured with Clairo on her Immunity Tour in 2019. The two artists are two years apart in age—Claire Elizabeth Cottrill (Clairo) being the older—and occupy a similar genre of lo-fi bedroom pop. “Glue Song” reminds me doing crafts in grade school—that kid that played with the paste, getting glue stuck in long hair, that sugary taste of non-toxic horse product. But I digress. Today, I’m bringing yesterday’s Fresh playlist to AppleMusic, with a few modifications. Check it out in the link below!



  • “Super Mall Mannequin” by Quotes from Movies + Fresh Playlist, Sunday, July 9, 2023

    Quotes from Movies has only about 5,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, but their inclusion on playlists like Fresh Finds and Soda have the song “Super Mall Mannequin” seeing a lot of success earlier this year. Since there’s not a lot of information from the band other than their Instagram account and the music they posted on streaming services, I decided to make a playlist of some of the songs that I’ve been listening to lately that I haven’t written about yet. Is there any Fresh Finds I should be listening to? I’ll add to this playlist from time to time. Enjoy!




     

  • “When Paula Sparks” by Copeland, Saturday, July 8, 2023

     

    The list of albums turning 20 this year makes me feel really, really old. Earlier this week, I covered the youth group classic The Beautiful Letdown. Anberlin released their debut record Blueprints for the Black Market, which also made a huge impact on my teenage life. But then some albums came out that year that I didn’t listen to until later. I had known Copeland from their first low-budget video “Walking Downtown,” but it wasn’t until their third record, Eat, Sleep, Repeat, that I started listening to the band. In the spring of ‘06 when I was about to graduate from high school I started buying Copeland’s CDs, picking them up on discount if I could from Best Buy. The first two records were perfect for late spring/summer listening. 


    I AM STARVED FOR HER ATTENTION. Copeland’s Beneath Medicine Tree has the most delicate lyrics of all Copeland records. The loose concept of the album deals with the death of lead singer Aaron Marsh’s grandmother and the hospitalization of his girlfriend at the time, Paula Sparks. In an interview on the Labeled Podcast, Marsh told host Matt Carter that writing and releasing the album “set [himself] up to not write anything that intensely personal ever again.” Songs like the sappy pre-Owl City “Brightest” are more abstract, but songs like today’s song “When Paula Sparks” reference very specific situations and people. Marsh broke up with Paula Sparks and recorded the song, posting it to MP3.com, and later recording it for Beneath Medicine Tree. One of Copeland’s early influences was the ‘90s alternative rock band Gin Blossoms. Marsh tells the story in the interview about a girl he knew named Allison Roads, who had a similar name to one of Gin Blossoms’ hits, “Allison Road.” Marsh tells Carter his thoughts at the time: “What if I put Paula’s full name in a song? She’ll feel so great. She’ll never forget me. . . It didn’t have the desired effect.” What started as trying to get the girl back turned into an awkward conversation.

    THERE’S A BRILLIANT SKY UP ABOVE. In her, somewhat disorganized book on writing Bird By Bird, Ann Lamott writes a hilarious chapter on avoiding libel. One of the first rules is, of course, never using a real person’s name. Using someone’s real name in art opens artists up to lawsuits, but other specific details can leave them liable as well. While “When Paula Sparks” doesn’t have many other damning details in the song—having a girlfriend who was hospitalized is universal enough—it would have been good for Marsh to have read this 1994 book. Lamott writes in the chapter titled “The Last Class”:

    Lamott goes on to cite (possibly coin before Dinitia Smith wrote about it in the New York Times and is credited for coining the rule) the “small penis rule”: 
    Of course, Lamott’s advice isn’t exactly full-proof as Michael Conklin writes in the Nebraska Law Review when examining when author Michael Crichton disguised one of this critics into a pedophile with a tiny penis. Conklin writes that the rule “does not require the plaintiff to admit that he has a small penis in order to sue for damages. A potential plaintiff could simply list the small penis accusation as an additional defamatory statement from which to seek compensation, thus explicitly stating that the small penis accusation is false.” And that’s what happened to Crichton. This didn’t happen to Aaron Marsh and he didn’t write anything defaming Paula, but writing in such a way that he wrote left him too raw. And those raw emotions are the exact thing that made Emo such an uncomfortable trend. Harder Emo disguises the emotions with music, but with Copeland—especially on Beneath Medicine Tree—all emotions are left naked, exposed like a weird skinny kid in the locker room among the jocks. The vulnerability is uncomfortable, but it also connected with so many early Copeland fans. And some of these listeners were also Sufjan Stevens fans. Authenticity is both a strength and a weakness. 

    Beneath Medicine Tree version:

    Alternate version:


  • “You Could Start a Cult” by Niall Horan, Friday, July 7, 2023 (Trigger Warning: Cults and Domestic Abuse/ Alienation)

    Last month, Niall Horan released his third record, The Show. The album topped sales and streaming charts in eight countries. In America, though, the record peaked at number 2 on Billboard’s 200 Albums chart. That’s still an impressive feat for a record without a major hit. That’s not to say that The Show lacks the catchiness required for a hit. The lead single “Heaven” peaked at  #62 and no other track has charted yet. It’s still possible that “Meltdown” or “Science” may catch on, but in today’s TikTok-driven music industry, Horan’s success is not a guarantee.


    I WILL FOLLOW YOU TILL THERE’S NO TOMORROW. The production on The Show is exceptional and Horan’s vocals and the harmonies on many of the songs are good. The critics on the podcast Every Album Ever point out that Niall Horan’s writing process for his music is more like the writing process of One Direction songwriting sessions than his fellow band mates whereas the other members tried to distance themselves from the boy band. The critics also point out a growth in Horan’s voice—stronger than his One Direction days—and artistry, particularly in the acoustic ballads. Today’s song, “You Could Start a Cult” is like a campfire tune, featuring Horan playing a nylon strung guitar and taking a very simple harmonica solo. The song certainly stands out among love songs lyrically comparing his love to a potential cult leader. The speaker’s affection for the listener is obsessive and his devotion to her is no less than worship. While the line “you could start a war or two” harkens back to many love songs that may even reference beautiful women like Helen of Troy or Joan of Arc, the notion of following a beautiful woman to the point of Jonestown-level sacrifice is not a common love song theme. The song could easily turn comical, but Niall delivers the lines calm and wistful. 

    THEY SAY THAT WE’RE CRAZY. Niall Horan has stated that The Show is a collection of songs written over the course of the pandemic. Some of the themes of seem to permeate the record, including “You Could Start a Cult.” True crime and cult survivor stories have had a huge following since the pandemic with a new Docu-Series arriving weekly. Today’s song, though, makes me think about a former coworker who has ghosted everyone (friends, family, acquaintances) after meeting a girl in Korea. Since the start of the pandemic, Korean cults, particularly the Shincheonji cult (신천지) had been blamed for spreading Covid after members of the elusive religious sect defied rules of gathering limits and spread the virus in the workplace. Shincheonji members were encouraged to lie and say that they didn’t belong to that church when asked. However, recently, the group started openly proselytizing in public. “We’re Shincheonji. Hear our message,” they said to me outside of the subway station. I said to my friend beside me under my breath but a little loudly as we avoided eye contact, “Thanks for the pandemic.” Of course there is a nuanced argument to have about freedom of assembly and freedom of religion, but seriously, the church members of Shincheonji were certainly culpable, so much so that their founder tried to gift the South Korean government money to pay for their wrongs. The South Korean government, however, did not accept  Lee Man-hee (이만희)’s donation and returned the 12 billion won ($10.1 million). So why has Shincheonji labeled a cult? A big part of that label is from how leadership recruits and isolates members from their friends and family, sometimes even moving members internationally. After being cut off from a former coworker after he met the love of his life, my friends and I speculated that the girl may be Shincheonji. The group has been infamous for recruiting foreign nationals in South Korea, often leeching onto Hallyu enthusiasts. Whether or not it was Shincheonji, another cult, or just a possessive relationship, an idolatrous relationship as suggested in today’s song and as executed in my former coworker’s devotion to the girl is alarming. Having grown up in a religion that many Christians call a cult, I’ve never actually experienced the “cutting of ties” in the way that I’ve experienced it with this person. Because of the serious nature of the topic, I’ll link some resources in case you are in a cult or an abusive relationship. Get out and get help. 



    Official audio:
    Live performance:


     

  • “Eileen’s Song” by Burlap to Cashmere, Thursday, July 6, 2023

     

    In 1998, a promising young band appeared in Christian music. Burlap to Cashmere was certainly a product of their day: late ’90s folk rock in a similar vein as Dave Matthews Band and fellow Christian folk rockers Caedmon’s Call. But in the true spirit of folk rock, Burlap to Cashmere was influenced by what the ’90s called “World Music,” otherwise known as folk music not popular in the United States. Founded by Brooklyn-based Greek-American cousins John Philippidis and Steven Delopoulos, Burlap to Cashmere takes influences from flamenco, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Greek folk music. 

    THROUGH THE WINTER AND THROUGH THE SUMMER. Burlap to Cashmere was a hit on Christian radio. “Basic Instructions” was a straightforward theological statement about the importance of reading the Bible, but musically the song took a rhythmic turn into flamenco that no other Christian artist was doing in ’98. “Treasures in Heaven” echos what Jesus instructed his followers in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 6:19-21. “Digee Dime” and the title track to their debut record Anybody Out There? also received radio play. I remember the rhythmic songs more on Christian radio. I don’t remember hearing today’s song, the second track on the album “Eileen’s Song,” on the radio, but the band did shoot a video for the song which played on the Christian satellite network Praise TV in heavy rotation. It was the most melancholy of the songs I had heard from the band, and honestly, the only song I liked of theirs. I didn’t like the voice that lead singer Steven Delopoulos put on in the other hits. And maybe I felt that the jamming songs felt inappropriate for their subject matter. I didn’t want to hear preachy music but rather just get into the music.

    LIKE ONE ANGEL, WE’LL FLY AWAY. “Eileen’s Song” feels of its day, but the song’s message has aged a lot better than the bands that actively helped to start the current culture war. The music video for the song captures both a timeless New York and a dated one only in that the video opens with “Welcome to Brooklyn / Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani” sign and the band performs in a building with a view of the World Trade Centers. The video shows an iconic view of Brooklyn: multi-ethnic, a working class neighborhood. The video deals with snapshots of happy and sad moments in various Brooklyn resident’s lives. Children play in an open fire hydrant in the summer. Cuban Americans play cards outside of a small tienda. It was more like what I saw in movies where people live or go to New York City rather than most pasty white Christian music videos of the time. And the lyrics of the song offered more nuance than most Christian songs ever help. “You have one wing, I have another” Delopoulous sings. At the end of the verse, he sings “Like one angel we’ll fly away.” In other words, the singer is saying that we need each other. We need our differences, and it will be the thing that saves us. 
    Burlap to Cashmere feels like they are actually carrying out the words of Jesus by showing empathy to the poor and marginalized. They are showing their neighborhood and that Christianity and humanity looks different than what the cooperate CCM machine generated. And as we get more and more polarized, it’s important to realize that the other side isn’t a demon. But we actually rely on each other more than we know. And our polarization is killing us. Putting aside our differences may be the only way to save us.






  • “Dare You to Move” by Switchfoot, Wednesday, July 5, 2023
























    Twenty years ago, Switchfoot released their seminal, breakthrough album, The Beautiful Letdown. The Christian Rock band had recorded three records on veteran CCM singer-songwriter Charlie Peakcock‘s re:think records. Like Steve Taylor had planned for the likes of Chevelle and Sixpence None the Richer, Peacock had hoped to market the band outside of the Christian market. But just before Switchfoot released The Legend of Chin, their debut album, re:think was bought by one of the largest Christian labels of the time, Sparrow Records. Re:think still released Switchfoot’s records, but distribution was almost exclusively in Christian retailers. 

    I DARE YOU TO LIFT YOURSELF OFF THE FLOOR. While The Beautiful Letdown is Switchfoot’s biggest record, the band’s sophomore record New Way to Be Human, and third record, Learning to Breathe, laid the groundwork for their success. The “noise pop” punk-pop adjacent sounds gained television spots on WB shows back when tons of nameless songs were blared during emotionally charged moments in young adult dramas. But the band’s true success came in the least rock ‘n’ roll way possible, being featured on the soundtrack to the film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, A Walk to Remember. The agent of the film’s star, pop teen idol Mandy Moore, Jon Leshay, who also produced the film’s soundtrack, heard Switchfoot and became bent on the band’s inclusion in the film. Switchfoot had four songs on the soundtrack, including a duet with Moore, “Someday We’ll Know.” Moore also covered Switchfoot’s “Only Hope.” The 2002 film brought Switchfoot into pop stardom, and with Leshay as the band’s new manager, they were set with the release of The Beautiful Letdown in 2003. Except success for their fourth album wasn’t immediate. 

    SALVATION IS HERE. Switchfoot’s fourth record, The Beautiful Letdown was an immediate hit in the Christian market, spawning singles in the Christian Hit Radio (CHR) and Christian Rock formats. The first single “More Than Fine” was marketed to Christian Pop (CHR) and “Meant to Live” was marketed to Christian Rock and later mainstream Active and Alternative radio. Other Christian singles followed, topping the charts, but “Meant to Live” slowly rose up the various radio formats even after Christian radio had moved on. This made the song inescapable for youth group kids. In fact, The Beautiful Letdown, thanks to “Meant to Live” and the follow-up Alternative Rock and Top 40 single, “Dare You to Move,” today’s song, was the second highest-selling Christian Rock album of the ’00s after P.O.D.‘s Satellite. “Dare You to Move” first opened the band’s third record Learning to Breathe. That version was featured in A Walk to Remember. The version on The Beautiful Letdown was much more refined version with an acoustic guitar slowly building into lead singer Jon Foreman‘s anthemic chorus. But with “Meant to Live” reaching the band’s career heights, none of the tracks matched the post-grunge new direction of the band or the philosophical themes raised in “Meant to Live.” So rather than releasing a heavier song from the record or a song that would sound vastly different from “Meant to Live,” Switchfoot released an alternative version with a heavier guitar intro. “Dare You to Move” was a big song for Switchfoot. It may have taken the boyfriends a while to come around to Switchfoot after suffering through the weepy A Walk to Remember to see Switchfoot as a rock band. But once “Meant to Live” did the work of piercing the charts, “Dare You to Move” replicated the lead single’s success. And this is strange because lyrically, I don’t know of any other pop song that has a lyric about redemption or salvation for that matter. While Switchfoot has had some charting alternative songs since, they remain solidly in Christian Rock, and will always be a staple of youth group culture. 




     

  • “I! Only! Wanna! Live! Forever!” by Fleurie, Tuesday, July 4, 2023

    Fleurie is just shy of 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter’s majority of listeners, though, come from outside the United States from India, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany to be precise. Last year I talked about about her cover of Sufjan Steven‘s   “To Be Alone with You,” which appears in the Looking for Alaska mini-series. While Fleurie has released many covers including a haunting version Linkin Park‘s “In the End” and Gary Jules‘ arrangement of Tears for Fears‘ “Mad World,” the singer also writes original songs and released her fourth LP earlier this year titled Supertropicali. 

    CALIFORNIA GIRLS DON’T LOOK LIKE ME. How to describe Fleurie’s latest album, Supertropicali? Fleurie describes it on her Spotify page as “a world, an era, a story unfolding, all stitched together in ’90s nostalgia, romance, youthful hope, and belonging.” Taking inspiration from Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and Marie Antoinette, Supertropicali transplants a Michigan girl via Nashville into Los Angeles. Listeners who have followed Fleurie before this album will probably notice the difference in tone, noting how upbeat this record is. Still taking elements of sad-girl, hip hop, and occasional trap lyricism (note the chorus on today’s song “I! Only! Wanna! Live! Forever!) make Supertropicali a smooth summertime listen. The rhythmic nature of the songs perhaps can be at least partially credited to co-writer and producer JT Daly, formerly of the band Paper Route. Recall that he was instrumental in changing Pvris‘ new sound.  Listening to Supertropicali and Prvis’ Use Me and the singles from the upcoming album with JT Daly collaborations there are certainly sonic parallels to be found in these recordings, namely in electronics and rhythms. 

    SURF ROCK, I LOVE YOU WITH A FIRE. While there are sonic similarities between Fleurie and Pvris, there is certainly a difference between the artists. Whereas Pvris has moved from alternative to dark pop, Fluerie has moved from singer-songwriter to indie pop. The dark, atheistic and sometimes witchy lyrics of Lyndsey Gunnulfsen are very different from the clean-cut former CCM singer Lauren Strahm. But while Strahm’s lyrics are very clean, I’d bet money that Supertropicali was influenced by tracks on Lana Del Rey‘s Born to Die. In fact, the lyrics of tracks like “Millennial  Angel” and “I! Only! Wanna! Live! Forever!” are all about the California dreams and not about the dark realities or the bad boys that color and sometimes poison Del Rey’s songs. Lana may have offered us “Diet Mt. Dew,” but Fleurie feels like Diet Lana Del Rey, and honestly sometimes we need that diet. Like Del Rey, there’s a touch of the dramatic in Fleurie’s aesthetic, though rather than a girl who gets kicked out of private school for drinking in the dorm room, Fleurie maintains a kind of grown-up church girl aesthetic. The video for today’s song has a melodramatic monologue about a “dark winter of the soul” before Fleurie begins singing the song. There’s a little cringe in it, but that melodrama is part of the nostalgia. Maybe the two albums serve as a kind of
    Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. You may have a preference, but in Fleurie’s defense, it’s     comforting to think about the world in terms of how we saw it when we were young: full of potential.