We haven't ventured into these waters in a little while, so let's see what has been released recently we need to talk about.
Sailor Hunter - Unbound
It might be reductive to say, but a singer can make all the difference in the world. I know I had heard the band's name before, but this song with a new singer has caught my attention in a way they hadn't before. Sailor Hunter blends many things in these brief four minutes, with deep riffs and hints of symphonics, and a singer who is able to go from screaming to classical wailing with ease. Dimitra is the revelation, using her voice to paint colors on the band's sonic landscape, pushing her voice to deliver the chorus with power and passion.
The song wastes no time, dropping from the chorus into a reprise of the riff, then straight back into the chorus for the outro. It's both progressive and regressive to break apart typical structure to have even less parts, but it focuses the composition on the massive hook and Dimitra's delivery. I can't fault that approach, because each time she cycles through it grows larger and more epic, and she has no trouble scaling even higher highs. If this points to where Sailor Hunter is headed, I'm definitely interested to hear where else that will take us. This is one of my favorite songs of the year.
Morrissey - Happy New Tears
Remember when I said rather harsh things about Morrissey's new album? Well, he's already announced a 'deluxe' version coming next month with a new song attached, so let's talk about it. This song is more of the glitchy electro-disco that "Notre Dame" was, which doesn't provide much of a melodic base for Morrissey's croon. The melody is rather lackluster, which only highlights the biggest problem with the song; Morrissey is a lazy-ass writer.
The two verses of this song are identical. I'm sorry, that isn't true. He adds the word 'for' to the start of a phrase the second time around. This penchant for repetition is not charming, and it grows tiresome on tracks that would be exhausting even with a developed lyric. Morrissey is getting by on his name and his 'charisma', and that's just not enough.
The song is a lament on how other people find happiness, and sometimes that is the only form of happiness we will ever see as possible. That sentiment speaks to me in this moment, as it's something I have noticed and commented on to myself, and yet Morrissey says it in such a meek and milquetoast way I don't feel the connection to the song I obviously should. The great artist is able to use their words to paint a picture that says more to us than mere words. Morrissey's great 'skill' these days is being able to say even less than face value with his words. It's remarkable how he can write a lyric about a deep topic that come across too shallow to drown in.
He once told us "there is a light that never goes out". Sorry, Morrissey, it has gone out on your career.
Deep Purple - Arrogant Boy
I've come to a conclusion; I don't like Ian Gillan. I don't like the shrillness of his voice, I don't like his increasingly bizarre and cringe-worthy lyrics, I probably wouldn't like him too much as a person if I knew him either. While I applaud Deep Purple for continuing to make albums this far into their career, I can't with any sense of honesty say I've enjoyed any of their recent efforts. The onomatopoeia album titles aren't cute or clever, and when they write songs with titles like "Vincent Price", I'm rather checked out when it comes to Deep Purple having anything of worth to say to me.
This song does nothing to rectify that. It's only three minutes, but it's half an instrumental that happens to have a weak and boring melody attached to the front end to make it into a proper song. Gillan sounds his age, and his lyric has all the aplomb of a Dr Seuss book. With lines like "he looked like shit" and he "didn't give a squirt", I felt embarrassed listening to ths song. Good on them if they aren't, but it just proves to me that Deep Purple for me is pretty much always going to be nothing more than memories of "Perfect Strangers" being the soundtrack to a wrestling character that has aged just as poorly.
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