Songs that contrast the picture postcard perfection of the textbook Instagram/TikTok image or TV family advert life with the reality of the hand-to-hand existence of the masses are hardly a rarity but Myrvi manage to come up with a slightly different twist on that subject in ‘Miserable people’, a “groovy ridicule of the prosperity race and the dazzling images everyone portrays of their lives.”
It’s the sort of song title which has you thinking that it will be a banger out of the mould of Pulp’s ‘Common people’ but it’s a whole lot calmer, thoughtful and better paced than that.
It doesn’t lack for lyrical vitriol though and I have to wonder if it is aimed at one person in particular rather than generically at a class of them. Then again, it is balanced by a discernible smidgeon of pity for the subject if it is:
“Consumer overload/Always half alone/Keep wanting more/Miserable people like you”
The message I get is that the person is ‘half alone’ not out of choice but out of necessity, having become persona non grata, and he/she’s only reaction to it is to indulge in even more bling as if that’s going to make any difference.
And there’s a possible subtext too, unless I’m over-thinking the meaning, in lines like,
“I don’t believe a word that you say/Drawing up the perfect image…/Believing in alternative truth”.
You could at a pinch read that as a comment on fake news?
Musically the song deviates in a different direction as an instrumental outro and I would like to hear some more of that cool synth over guitar sound.
The music video here was recorded on tour, in northern Germany I assume, where they meet a replicant out of Blade Runner. Prinz Willys is in Kiel, thank you Mr Google for that, while they also visited Rostock. These are quite out of the way places which probably don’t get many visits from high quality foreign bands and they are to be applauded for making the effort.
You know I did wonder, just for a moment, about Prinz Willys. What sort of club it might be. I’m reminded that Emppu Vuorinen, Nightwish’s guitarist, lives in an apartment in Tampere over a sex club, the only one in town. But in that case there’s no mistaking it; the club is called Big Tits.
But if you’re Icelandic (or any other nationality) you don’t need to travel to Germany, Finland or anywhere else to see them, you just need to note they are playing on home turf at Iceland Airwaves this year.
Another reason to go.
‘Miserable People’ is out now. The album ‘Early Warning’ will be released this year.
Find them on:
Website: https://myrkvi.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/myrkvimusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myrkvimusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrkvimusic/
