1. Peter Frampton & Eric Clapton - While My Guitar Gently Weeps. A somewhat unexpected take on this classic. Airy vocals, with which Frampton takes ownership of the song. And a tight, wiry and fiery dialogue of guitar solos.
2. New Kids On The Block - Bring Back The Time (Ft Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley, En Vogue). A funny yet somewhat misfiring attempt at '80s nostalgia, as it never succeeds in fully utilizing its potential - and I am referring here to, for example, En Vogue's vocal skills, or simply to being a more memorable song, musically speaking. However, the video is funny (as it mimics some iconic 80s music videos), and the song, albeit fairly mediocre, is nevertheless somewhat of an earworm (despite it all) - and, of course, '80s nostalgia remains a fun thing to do.
3. Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart). One of the music videos replicated in the NKOTB video; but what a great song - and video! A song that begins with a "hard guitar," and then morphs into a rhythmic piece about... love relationships, and survival. All of this carried forth by Steve Perry's transcendent vocals. And a quintessential '80s vamp, strutting about throughout the vid.
4. King's Singers - And So It Goes. And now for something completely different: a sublime take by the masterful chamber group, on one of Billy Joel's most memorable songs. The musical peak of this here mixtape.
5. Wolf Kati - Szerelem miért múlsz. One of Hungary's top (two) entries ever at the Eurovision Song Contest (next to the one from AWS). A very Celine Dion-like dance piece - in its fully produced, "radio edit" version; which would have finished much higher in the final rankings, if the live performance would have lived up to the quality of the recorded version. But the studio version remains a bop.
BONUS. I am not familiar with the kid's show which originated this, but I remember seeing the character of Robbie Rotten (the tall fellow in matching striped pants and vest) as well as his clones circulating as memes, a few years ago; and I found them all (the characters, and the animation style) endlessly appealing. Be it as it may, this ska piece (from the show, and featuring RR) is sheer fun.
At the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, one of the most
surprising, fresh entries was that of the Hungarian band AWS, with their “metalcore” song, Viszlát Nyár (Goodbye, Summer). What
caught one’s attention, besides the attractiveness of the piece (within the confines of the genre), was the raw emotion and energy of the
song and of the performance. Fittingly so, since the lyrics, written by the band’s front man, Örs Siklósi, had autobiographical connotations, speaking (in metaphorical
terms) about the recent passing of his father:
Goodbye summer, you’re too late now; because you lied to me that you’d be mine, but you never came!
Bittersweet, poetic, raw, angry, sincere – all these sentiments and states expressed through the fitting musical language of the “metalcore”
style.
While I must confess that this isn't a musical style with
which I am very familiar, or that I commonly listen to, I really liked the band and the song – which led me to look into their other works, as well. And thus I listened to their two most recent albums, Kint a Vízből (Out of the Water, 2016, YouTube,
Spotify) and Fekete Részem (My Dark Dimension, 2018, YouTube, Spotify).
And what I discovered upon listening to these albums was - to my delight – a band that
truly tries to “make art” (again, within what one could call the rather narrow confines of the genre). This is especially true in what concerns the lyrics of
their songs (and you can find their English translation here), lyrics that, in a manner quite seldom encountered nowadays in popular music, are quite lyrical (and intentionally so). And this is precisely one of the things that is most sorely lacking from
contemporary pop music - the lyrical quality; and also one of the reasons why current popular music seems so pedestrian, empty, meaning-less and forgettable - because of a lyrical poverty reflected in their minuscule vocabulary, a the lack of a mastery of the
language, and in a vulgarity that often verges on the pornographic.
Yet the high model of popular music should be (must be!) something along
the lines of the works of a Leonard Cohen, a Simon & Garfunkel, a Bob Dylan,
a Van Morrison, or even the Beatles – all of whom, at their best, created sung
poetry. And a song that is not poetic is just… banal, passable, forgettable. And thus the landscape of current popular music is quite unlivable – which is why actually encountering an artistic, poetic endeavor, in such a barren
landscape, feels like stumbling upon fresh water in the Sahara.
Yes, this is why it was so refreshing and enlivening to find
(even within a fairly constricted musical genre) a true attempt to make art - and to do it consciously, intentionally, in an intelligent and literate way, and daring to speak about the important things. Of course,
one could find a number of youthful faults in these two albums, as well: a bit of emotional immaturity, of hormonal revolt, maybe some self-serving sentimentalism - all of these fully understandable, given the band members' young age. But what stands out from their music are not these minor lacunae – but what transcends what could be expected from
a band of this type, and of their age range. For example: yes, one finds in their songs the genre-typical tone of social critique - yet here it is a critique that does not simply parrot some vacuous "anti-system" clichés, but almost always points further, at a deeper, personal pursuit of the (existential) truth – ultimately pointing toward the core question of, “how should I live?” (And that is a sign of maturity, an intellectual-poetic maturity dearly missing from popular culture today.)
It also helps that the words often have a metaphysical dimension, or ramification, as well – proving again
that they come from a personal search for the truth, and for authentic existence; and not from a mindless repetition of clichés.
And the author of most of the lyrics - and thus the one whose personal existential quest seems to be reflected in these songs - is none other than the band's front man and singer, Siklósi Örs [in Hungarian the family name comes first]. And the biographical snippets that
we have about Örs seem to confirm the personal and artistic depth reflected in these lyrics. And thus it was quite moving and joy-giving for me to discover a young artist – a new young poet - who is in the process of keeping the flame of poetry (and the pursuit of art) alive, in the mostly arid field
of contemporary popular music - and also to see them endow a relatively shallow musical genre with unexpected poetic-existential depth.
In my mind, therefore, Siklósi Örs appeared as a worthy
successor – of course, at a much reduced scale, and within a more modest artistic context - of the young rebel poets of the late nineteenth century (Rimbaud, Baudelaire etc).
And then, many months later, I learned – and it was truly a shock to learn – of the passing of Siklósi Örs, aged only 29, as a consequence of leukemia. “Viszlát, nyár!” And it did hurt to learn this, as much as it hurts to hear of the passing
of any real poet, of any true (if only budding) artist – of anyone who tries keeps the flame of what matters
alive, and thus inevitably becomes a carrier of this light within the world. I am
thinking of people like Leonard Cohen, Norm MacDonald… whose deaths hit unusually hard because they were true artists, true... poets. And so it was in the case of Örs, as well.
I leave you with another outstanding piece from the
band – perhaps their most poetic piece, and musically perhaps my favorite. In the lyrics to this song Örs uses the familiar images and sensations of an early morning city bus ride (or metro ride), to reflect and to inquire into his own existential state - and the state of the others.
