note: not the hoffman-based satire u crave. sry to disappoint. itll happen eventually. fertile ground he is. (mr. magorium's wonder emporium? are u kidding me??)
even before I pulled a muscle in my left arm I was probably unable to lift anything over 10 or 11 pounds but now that I have somewhat of a proper excuse I guess I'll let that limb just remain dormant for the rest of my life. the long term consequences of just leaving it to atrophy— a fun party trick, an excuse out of P.E., etc— easily trump slowly and painfully regaining strength there. after summer school & a slew of masturbation jokes (the most contextually-inappropriate being from my mother) i've retreated to my room to put on the record that has been spinning on both my mental and actual turntable.
i'd just like to say that I fully believe in the ignorance is bliss philosophy, as much as 7th-grade / anarcho-punk / closeted gay / borderline MRA Asher would scream NIN lyrics into her pillow at. This (relatively recently adopted) philosophy was only further embraced when last night I made the mistake of looking up images of Kevin Barnes. i was so upset by his glamour that I had to shut off my computer and listen to the album in its entirety again.
but no i know i get it. i have no right to be appalled or even surprised over the incongruity between kevin barnes' press photos and Early Four Track Recordings. EFTR is, perhaps unfortunately, not at all a proper representation of Of Montreal's aesthetic, especially not the aesthetic Mr. Barnes has adopted in the popular photos that surface— this new look is kind of a semi-ironically electro-Village-People kaleidoscope of, yeah, glamour and flamboyance and most prominently: neo-psychedelia*, which is almost entirely absent on EFTR save for a few subtly twisting guitar sounds. we're discussing separate bands kind of.
EFTR is, however, filled to the brim— overwhelmingly so, for some misguided assholes— with s 60s pop songs. what charmed me so intensely is precisely what Kevin's post-2001 press photos lack— a kind of intimate, vulnerable innocence... that sweetly southern Daniel-Johnston-cum-Bradford Cox** voice (with hints of Michael Stipe? its an Athens thing i suppose) quietly & uneasily whines about the emotional barrier of a telephone ("only lets me borrow the comforts of your voice," on one song, "a hundred times I've shook the receiver so a hint of your voice might fall out" on another) various uncomfortable and unrequited romances. Good Boy Kevin plays these songs to you in his poorly-lit bedroom while his parents are asleep in the other room.
so you can imagine my disappointment when I google his name, hoping for a picture of a modest, unassuming John Flansburgh type and instead get what id imagine the son of both Sparks members would look like
but for now I have my Kevin, Sweet Kevin, who pads his writing with tangles of traditional indie-pop— quintessential early Kindercore. the revival (or fetishization, for some misguided assholes) of 60's pop was nothing new in the late 90s— this type of unapologetic tweeness didn't just show up repeatedly during the birth of indie-pop, but was a catalyst in ethos and sound. And this record proves as a warm reminder of that music— made for and by People Just Like Me. It is welcome in my life especially during a time when the "cutting-edge" of music follows an opposite aesthetic. It is simple and human— there is little in between me and Kevin. i will play this record loud and dance in my underwear as butterfly string lights grow out of focus in the distance. i'll lay on the floor of my bedroom in the summer heat. the record's not a masterpiece. it's certainly not one-of-a-kind. but it is simple and honest. it's the soundtrack to a high school summer!!
*MGMT must've studied this photo im
mediately prior to creating the cover of their debut. Is it not embarrassing?
**also the tags in the description of the greatest indie music porno ever created
afterword:
A working title of this post was Dustin Hoffman Writes A Review but I
figured it was too easy and also had probably already been done. That's
all I'll say on the track titles, except that the tender innocence +
absurd and childlike humor does bring to mind my favorite of the actor's roles.
