I (we) have just been ’treated’ to the list of top table headline artists at Glastonbury this year. Well at least Olivia Rodrigo can sing and is dynamic. But The 1975, offering another controversial wokefest of the kind that gets entire festivals cancelled?
Neil Young? Last year he described it as middle class trash or something like that and refused to accept his invitation. What’s so different this year, Neil? The Prodigy? They might set the place on fire. Rod Stewart? Rolled on in a wheelchair probably while the Brats are well represented by Charlie XCX.
My advice to Ms Eavis would be to sack the lot of them and apply a Norwegian remedy.
Remedies sound to me like they have all the answers.
Their latest single, ’Don’t let it in’ suggests a horror film, a spin-off from the Elm Street Freddy franchise, or perhaps Halloween, or even The Exorcist; the demon Pazuzu lurking outside a Georgetown townhouse, awaiting it’s chance to slip in through a bedrom window and seize the soul of an innocent 12-year old girl. (And the dead eyed doll image they use certainly helps)!
Or maybe a corny porn film with lines like ”awake the snake in me”
With its its classic 1970’s acoustic guitar prog intro, cinematic melodies, chromatically rising vocal riffs, synthesised orchestral arrangement; soulful jazzy bridge and baroque pop outro that has elements of both the UK’s indie darlings The Last Dinner Party and fellow countrywomen Katzenjammer, Remedies manage to cram four or five songs seamlessly into one.
Meanwhile vocalist Sigrid Ravn Ryan herself offers several different vocal styles, from the weirdness of Apple to the softness of a Natalie Mering to the loucheness of a Shirley Bassey or an Elkie Brooks.
I’d love to know if there is a technical term for what she does with her voice on the opening line ”Turn a blind eye to it”. It’s like a discord on an instrument but it enhances rather than detracts from the melody.
The song is actually about not giving in to events beyond our control by preventing negative thoughts and feelings from taking over, staying true to your guiding principles.
But this is one of those instances where even reveling in the way they craft a story your attention will be directed more to the journey of the tune rather then the depth of the lyrics.
A very smart song as Donald would say and an early contender for Song of the Year. What’s more we are promised more of them and perhaps an album, which would be their second.
They (Sigrid and multi-instrumentalist Tor Erik Krane Ursin) formed the band in Narvik in 2016.They compose, write, produce, and release their music independently.
Another band I’d really like to see here in the UK soon.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisisremedies
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thisisremedies/
