Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
What is the exact definition of "sleeping on" something? According to the all-knowing Urban Dictionary, it's the equivalent to saying something is "overlooked, forgotten, or ignored." It's been a couple of months since I talked about Department of Eagles, a group that deserves just as much recognition as Daniel Rossen's other band, Grizzly Bear. Today, I want to focus on one of my favorite albums ever that virtually NO ONE I've talked to has ever heard of, but totally should! This album's origins started in late 2014, when Will Butler, originally of Arcade Fire fame, released a single called "Take My Side." It had a fresh, polished, roughly-Americana type of sound that totally deferred from AF's trademark noise. Shortly after that in early 2015, the song "Anna" was released. This is probably the most known track on the album, because of the video that accompanies it, starring the wonderful Emma Stone. On March 10th, 2015, the amazing album that is Policy finally fully dropped into the world. If I could actually identify the quality I love most about this album, it would be the lyrics. They're honest, raw, real, serious but chock full of jokes, self-deprecating, and hilarious all in one. If I had to advertise one lyric to get all of you to listen to this album, it would be "If I could fly, you know I'd beat the s**t out of some birds." Just because...think of all the possibilities that being able to fly would present to you. Birds would be the least of your concerns, (unless you had a crippling fear of them. But still.) That lyric alone sets the tone for Policy, occasionally chock-full of jests that make you think. I love the speaking tone throughout the album. It presents a constant voice of casual anxiety and paranoia, and I've always sensed that the entire album was a warning of some sort. This is most obvious in the song "Something's Coming," a funky synth-fueled party that tells of an apocalypse that is soon approaching. I was always scared by the music video (below), but I'm guessing that's the energy that it's meant to radiate. I know, that video's crazy, but as always, in the best way. Moving along, another aspect that I admired in this album are the five additional songs exclusively included in the deluxe edition. Shortly before the album came out, Will released one song every day for a week about headlines he read off The Guardian. These included articles about black holes, debt and water crises, and even one about an Isis attack. Personally, I was extremely intrigued by this method, mainly because when I first heard the album I wasn't aware of the inspiration behind those the last five tunes. When I came back, I was able to see and understand where he was coming from. To me, it seems like such an versatile and fun exercise to work with, just because of all the insanity that you see on the front page of any news site. As you can read about in this series published by The Guardian themselves, that proved to be true with Will's songs. My favorite song in this little project-in-a-project is "Madonna Can't Save Me Now," which is the one about the black hole I mentioned earlier. The original article was about how said black hole was recently discovered, how it's 12 billion times bigger than the sun, and how its slowly gaining mass. Fun, right? And the lyrics are even peppier: It basically tells us all that the world is going to end eventually and nothing any person creates won't matter to anyone. Now the title makes sense, yes? And the theme I mentioned earlier about apocalypse now....it's all coming together. I like this song so much because Will focuses less on our literal disappearance into this scary bottomless space pit and more on what has had the most impact on all of our lives as a whole: the art that we have made through the thousands of years we've been around. We definitely don't think about this enough, and it's interesting to reflect on all the culture that will come with us if the human race ever disappears. Because, after all, would other species be able to understand it when it's stumbled upon in the future? Is it even worth creating? Alright, this is getting too existential. Too existential for my page, for sure. But, I must admit, I enjoyed writing about it. Policy is a little dark at times, but all the scary stuff is sung in such a natural and energetic way that you seem to look it all over. The garage-rock sound is unique, the videos created for the songs are amazingly well-produced, and I've already professed my feelings for the lyrics many times in this article. I've loved this album since 2015, and I will not stop loving it until Mr. 12 Billion comes and sucks us and all of our creations in it. I totally recommend that you listen to this album too, you know, before it's too late. You can listen to Policy on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, basically every popular streaming service I looked up and found this album on.
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