01 | August | 2017 | Heartbreaking Bravery

August 1, 2017

Will Butler – Anything You Want / 4 July 17 (Stream)

Continuing onward with the individual features for some of the most outstanding individual achievements over the past seven weeks, the focus falls to an oddity of a track from Arcade Fire’s Will Butler: “Anything You Want / 4 July 17”.

There couldn’t have been a lot of people could have anticipated that Will Butler would wind up being the most formidable lyricist housed in Arcade Fire or that he’d be making the most interesting music of anyone in the band at this point in their careers but “Anything You Want / 4 July 17” all but cements both of those statements. Arcade Fire are currently in the midst of the harshest reviews of their career for their just-released Everything Now while Butler’s still enjoying a rising profile thanks to some small critical acclaim and recognition for his excellent 2015 solo effort, Policy.

All of the songs on Policy seemed to suggest untapped depths of the younger Butler’s musical talents but “Anything You Want / 4 July 17” obliterates what was the perceived ceiling on the multi-instrumentalist’s lyricism. Few songs from revered songwriters and lyricists have matched the kind of narrative web and mastery of tone that Butler displays here in a song that was released as a standalone curiosity just before the 4th of July.

Not only does “Anything You Want / 4 July 17” skewer and then humanize American politics with a near-unmatched clarity of empathy, the song also blends in some sharp relief through black humor and unexpected intimacy. All the while, a gorgeous piano figure both heightens and propels the narrative, landing the song somewhere between the camps of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson without ever being dwarfed by the shadow of either forebear.

Verse to verse, whether Butler’s wrangling tongue-in-cheek laughs or painful recognition, there’s not a false or forced moment throughout “Anything You Want / 4 July 17” even as an already extremely broad scope continues to expand throughout the song’s six minute run-time. By the time Butler scales things way back, the song’s touched on systemic dynamics from powerful institutions through an endearingly micro vantage point.

It’s an extraordinary achievement — especially for what appears to just be a random one-off song — and should skyrocket anticipation for whatever’s next for Butler’s solo career. If it can even remotely approach these heights, it’ll stand a shot at being one of the decade’s best releases. Until that moment comes, it’s hard to imagine anyone will resist paying “Anything You Want / 4 July 17” an endless onslaught of revisits. Don’t let this one go by unheard.

Listen to “Anything You Want / 4 July 17” below and keep an eye on this site for more updates on Will Butler.

August 1, 2017

Seven Weeks, Five Music Videos

Seven weeks is a long time to abandon regular coverage but that interim’s come to a close and the time’s now come to feature some of the very best material of that span. Putting aside that obscenely perfect Charly Bliss video (and another video that will be featured in the very near future), the below selections stood out as the five best clips to emerge over those seven weeks. Old favorites and new faces collide, while everything from unhinged animation to quiet contemplation secure the focal point. So, dive in and explore some of the best examples that the medium has to offer and revisit them at will. Enjoy.

Protomartyr – A Private Understanding

While it’s true Protomartyr have sculpted a career and reputation on being consistently excellent, very few people could have anticipated the staggering leap forward “A Private Understanding” represented in both scope and ambition. Easily the most impressive moment of the band’s already distinguished career, “A Private Understanding” came with an intensely arresting visual accompaniment. Centering on a hypnotic central performance the clip for “A Private Understanding” grabs existential crisis by the throat and squeezes until existential crisis is all that’s left. Equal parts Michael Haneke and Roy Andersson, it’s a coy and relentlessly bleak triumph.

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Jen Cloher – Regional Echo

“Regional Echo” and the similarly dreamlike “Forgot Myself” clip both nearly made this list with the former getting the push thanks in large part to its more pronounced melancholy. Jen Cloher may be a faintly familiar name to some thanks to her considerably more famous partner, Courtney Barnett, but the songwriter’s forthcoming self-titled full-length’s seeking to lessen that dynamic and allow Cloher’s songwriting merits to be the guitarist/vocalist’s calling card. “Regional Echo” is a trance-inducing clip, teeming with soft lyricism and no shortage of conviction. It’s a gorgeous video and a strong testament to Cloher’s considerable talent.

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M.A.G.S. – Demon

Over the past few years, restraint’s been a tough task for a lot of music videos to master, much less turn into a form of aggression. There have been some high-profile examples in recent time (and Minor Victories more than proved it can still be done with brute strength in a modern setting over the course of last year). It’s barely been attempted in more DIY-leaning settings, which makes M.A.G.S.‘ gripping clip for “Demon” even more surprising. Everything from the Academy ratio the clip’s presented in to the classically iconic imagery of the pink room manages to both ensnare attention and heighten the immediacy of the clip. It’s an unexpected, unassuming glimpse at brilliance.

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Soccer Mommy – Allison

“Allison”, both as a song and as a video, calmly continues Soccer Mommy‘s string of seemingly continuous grace notes. A gently mesmerizing clip that seems to reflect the tranquility of the water it was shot beside, the visuals of Allison work as a perfect complement to the source material. Touching on everything from a search for peace to the decision to move forward, “Allison” coaxes maximum impact out of its minimalist confines, conjuring up a lasting impression that lingers well after the clip winds to its hushed close. The musical equivalent of a tenderly loved and well-worn blanket, it’s hard to come away from “Allison” without immediately wanting to be wrapped back up again.

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Julie & The Wrong Guys – You Wanted What I Wanted

Every once in a while, there’s a band that comes along and unleashes absolute hell in the form of their introduction-at-large. One of the latest examples of this is the incendiary “You Wanted What I Wanted” form Julie & The Wrong Guys, a gnarled, battered monster of a post-punk track. Appropriately, the video for “You Wanted What I Wanted” features deranged, quasi-nightmarish imagery, fusing traditional and digital animation with a ramshackle glee as the song hurtles towards an explosive climax that further proves Julie & The Wrong Guys are coming out of the woodwork to make their name known. Punk bite, pop hooks, smart visuals, and a whole lot of attitude all combine to ensure that Julie & The Wrong Guys is a name worth committing to memory.

August 1, 2017

Charly Bliss – Westermarck (Music Video, Live Video)

Over the past seven weeks, there hasn’t been a lot of regular coverage on this site. There’s a long list of reasons behind that which can all be condensed into this: Heartbreaking Bravery’s a one-person operation and life’s kept me a lot busier than usual. To amend the coverage gaps, three large recaps ran yesterday. Throughout the week, there’ll be “best of” lists that cover those three main categories: streams, music videos, and full streams. To break the monotony up a little, there’ll also be a trio of individual pieces running on some of the very best material to have appeared over the past seven weeks, starting with site favorites Charly Bliss and their note-perfect video for “Westermarck”.

Directed by Andrew Costa — who was also at the helm for the “Ruby“, “Percolator“, and “Black Hole” clips — “Westermarck” finds the band newly positioned and brimming with a confident joy that translates well to screen. While Costa was able to hint at the band’s outsize playfulness on the previous two directorial outings, the clip for “Westermarck” goes beyond just hints and expertly conveys the band’s entire identity. It’s virtually unmatched by any of the previous videos from either Costa or the group’s prior visual collaborator, Christopher George (who ably executed the visual accompaniments for Soft Serve).

Reportedly loosely inspired by the Jonas Brothers’ Disney vehicle Camp Rock, “Westermarck” makes excellent use of a playground setting and allows the band to revel in just enjoying life. Combating depression, loneliness, insecurity, and weariness with a resilient positivity and healthy relationships with empathetic people was the underlying crux of the narrative that runs through Guppy, the band’s debut full-length and Album of the Year contender on which “Westermarck” appears, and is subtly conveyed throughout the visual treatment they’ve afforded “Westermarck”.

Josh Kanuck provided the clip with a worn colorization that balances pastels with more rustic leanings and plays up the nostalgia factor that peers through a lot of the band’s work, doubling down on the clip’s overall effectiveness (Charly Bliss has always been able to marry youth with hard-won knowledge and to be able to allude to that theme with the use of color is an incredibly clever touch). More than anything else, though, microanalysis aside, “Westermarck” stands as another perfect example of what virtually guaranteed this site would be spilling a lot of digital ink in following Charly Bliss’ exploits: it’s a deeply sincere affirmation of pure feeling.

Whether the band’s getting their faces painted, careening around on a skateboard, playing guitar while slacklining, dancing on tables, batting an inflatable ball around together, lighting sprinklers, or playing through the song on some docks or in a cabin, there’s a sense that the band — and a small group of friends — are enjoying the living hell out of every moment they have together.

At the end of the day — especially in an environment rife with projected detachment — it’s incredibly important to not only be reminded of the virtues that Charly Bliss so readily espouses but to see those virtues in action. While their last two records remain untouchable works of art, “Westermarck” just might go down as their definitive statement. Hit play and get swept up in Charly Bliss’ irrepressible joy.

Watch “Westermarck” (and watch them play through the song last year in Minneapolis) below and pick up Guppy from Barsuk here.

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