Porches “The House” Album Review
Alternating between interludes, to narrative collaborations starring his father, girlfriend, and reputable artist and friend Sandy (Alex G), Aaron Maine’s third album The House gives listeners an introspective look into what could be considered his most personal album. Differentiating itself from previous albums, Pool and Slow Dance in the Cosmos, The House runs on a lyrical flow of storytelling.
Kicking off the fourteen tracked album, the steady synth beat track “Leave The House” introduces Maine’s duet with Sandy (Alex G’s) whose high airy vocals encapsulate the entire repetitious chorus of “let it happen” and “its never what I thought.” Essentially, “Leave The House” sets the overall tone of the album as Maine conveys the sense of uncertainty and insecurity found in stepping out of one’s comfort zone into the unfamiliarity of a new relationship.
Immediately contrasting the precedence of “Leave The House”, “Find Me”, showcases Maine’s homespun beats with its upbeat techno instrumentals. Similarly, “Anymore” runs on a fervent keyboard build up while “Goodbye” feature an optimistic upbeat hook. However, the album contains an equal balance in slow songs that reveal the evocative lyrics prevalent in the album. Seen in tracks like “Country”, with its slow keyboard ballads accompanied by Maine’s soft hypnic repetition in “Break the water with your arms.” Along with the down tempo melancholic keyboard ballads in “By My Side” and the slow but powerful mixed guitar and keyboard build up in “Ono.”
Skewing the album away from just full length songs, Maine took a stylistic leap in enriching The House with several tracks that act as interludes. Starting with narration conducted by Maine’s father in “Understanding”, Maine’s father’s recites a ballad that emits the feeling of submerging oneself in a relationship that goes beyond the norm, with a “love supreme and never ending.” Extending the love story further, singer and Maine’s girlfriend, Kaya Wilkins, narrates the poetic upbeat track “Akeran” in Norwegian. The interlude contains chilling high back vocal harmonies that contrast against Wilkins euphonic recitation of Maine’s personal poem. Lyrically “Akeran” introduces the central leitmotif of the album that focuses on the imaginary relationship of Ricky and Julie. Ending on an happy note, the final track on the album, “Anything U Want”, implies a sweet optimistic consensus to the relationship of Ricky and Julie as Maine’s gentle voice concludes the album with a repetitious ode to the 3 most powerful words of intimacy, I love you.
In essence, The House is a host for Maine’s raw emotions that serve as the lyrical foundation to the album. Maine’s third album lyrically and instrumental exhibits Maine’s submergence into a new mature and emotionally provocative musical territory.
The demise of love at first sight? (Op-Ed on Tinder)
“Download a Tinder you’ll get all the affirmation you deserve!” “ My tinder hookups are great.“ “I just downloaded the app and already have 60 matches.” These are just some of the few phrases my friends have repeatedly said to me in an attempt to encourage me to join the dating app, “Tinder.” Tinder is so deeply enrooted in not only just college culture but adult life as well that it seems like the only means of forming romantic relations with someone in this day and age. It really is as simple as a quick swipe right with your thumb to instantaneously receive mutual reciprocation. So is the progression of human relationships really evolving into just looking at our phones instead of in the eyes of someone else? Do we just reduce people down to a few of one’s best forefronted photos, along with a bio that encapsulates how unique one is, and one’s favorite song that is suppose to present this well rounded image on exactly who they are as a person?
Before realizing how popular and widespread Tinder is in our society, I always lived my life turning a blind eye to the idea of ever putting myself out there through the internet. Zero judgement to anyone that uses dating apps to try to find their partner since it all comes down to personal preference, but it seems now with the simple usage of Tinder we collectively as human beings are disregarding the concept of approaching people in person and putting ourselves out there in the moment. In other words we can’t even stand in a elevator with someone without instantly reverting to our phone.
As someone with extreme social anxiety to the extent of literally looking down at my feet in order to avoid making eye contact with my fellow college peers whilst trying to cross the Boylston-Tremont intersection to get from the Walker building to Ansin, I completely understand why it is so hard and nerve wracking to just go up to someone you’re interested in and introduce yourself to them. Growing up I was inundated with the concept of falling in love at first sight based on all the films and TV shows that influenced my perception with love. Love at first sight to me encouraged a sense of hope that I would be in a situation specifically like the scene in 500 Days of Summer where Summer introduces herself to Tom through mutual love for The Smiths and bam a relationship is acquired through just a small interaction.
My perception of love at first sight can definitely be categorized towards being a lost in the clouds romanticist, but in actuality there were decades of history before the 21st century where human beings were somehow able to develop relationships without the existence of Tinder as a foundation to rely upon. At the end of the day Tinder is based upon looks and there is hardly any way to counteract the essentiality of a user’s picture choices. The picture acts as the main and first component that users instantly judge upon whether that’s immediately swiping left or taking the extra few seconds to actually read one’s bio after looking at their pictures to see if potential is evident. Though it is human instinct to impulsively judge people based upon their face not even just on Tinder, but in our daily lives as general, its specifically disappointing and depressing to me how much emphasis in romantic intention is based on the exterior of someone instead of interior. Though you can dm a person and try to get to know them better and even take the leap towards meeting the person in real life to me at the end of the day you still met that person just through browsing through a couple of photos of them.
I would like to believe that people are still able to muster up their courage and approach someone and compliment them or get to know them better in the moment, but lately in this current day and age I feel like that method of meeting people is fading away like the erosion of a dinosaur fossil. Tinder will definitely continue to be the primary catalyst for hookups or unsolicited compliments in the dms, since all these actions can be achieved easily through the use of your phone without even needing to approach someone in person. However, I’d like to hope more self awareness is shined upon the artificiality that manifests within Tinder and how there genuinely is more to a person than a few photos can convey to one. Though I am no love guru of any sorts, I hope collectively as a society we can strive towards spreading more love verbally over digitally.
The album that made me appreciate my own company
“It’s just me, how I’m living now. These are the things I’m dealing with, with people in my life right now. It’s open and honest in a different way” is the overall message frontman Dustin Payseur conveys as the theme of Beach Fossil’s debut album, Somersault, that was released just last year, and I think Payseur’s connotation is what made this album so comforting and therapeutic to me my first semester of college.
Being an out of state student, especially the environmental transition from the Southern culture of Texas to the fast paced metropolitan lifestyle of Boston, is extremely overwhelming and feels like living on another planet away from what was once previously deemed as my comfort zone. I immediately felt the presence of an independent lifestyle when I first arrived in August, and at first it was fun to explore my newfound environment by myself, but when I delved 3 more months into the semester without making any friends, the city became daunting and my sense of confidence shrinked immensely.
My first semester taught me what complete self isolation felt like, with having no one to talk to and waking up every morning depending on yourself. The only sense of company I had and what kept me mentality afloat was listening to music. Beach Fossils, one of my favorite alternative bands of all time, hadn’t released an album since Clash the Truth in 2014, so when Somersault ended their 4 year music hiatus, I streamed the album nonstop on a daily basis until I realized the album really applied to all the negative emotions I was feeling. The sense of relatability present in this album made me feel like I had the company of an intangible friend.
In an interview with Noisey for Vice, Payseur alludes to the album representing self reflection and personal development while acknowledging one’s mistakes in order to see “things that I could be doing better. Where I’ve failed. I’m seeing where I could be a better person. I think it’s really important to admit that. Not even in art, but to yourself.” This theme of personal growth is prominent in the opening track “This year” with its melancholy steady guitar chords focusing on starting a new year by getting rid of old habits like becoming “a better friend” and trying “not to fall back onto the knife.”
There’s a sense of subtle hopelessness throughout the album seen in songs like “Sugar” with its triple repetitive chorus of “I’m lost in” and “I’m feeling nothing” and in “Saint Ivy” with its blend of the violin and electric guitar encompassing Payseur’s soft vocals on having nothing to rely on physically and spiritually with his depiction of loneliness in “ Don’t believe in Jesus/ Heaven knows I’m wasting my time.”
Yet, out of all the eleven tracks on the album, the song that personally felt like it was written for me and my personal desolation in Boston was “Down the line.” The song represents a lyrical outlet towards Payseur’s feeling of depression and not knowing how to handle it or express what he’s feeling to his friends and family. Though the song feels like a let down in the chorus with “These days I feel like I do nothing right,” there is a obscure conveyance of optimism and being able to overcome depression, exemplified with the harmonizing woodwind instruments in the song and Payseur’s repetitive chorus of, “So come with me and we’ll go down the line.”
Somersault is the first time I listened to an album and felt like it perfectly transcribed every emotion and thought in my brain. Maybe I felt so connected with it because of Payseur’s similar emotions and background. Payseur too made the move from his hometown in North Carolina to Brooklyn and said to the Fader “it’s hard to not get emotional when that’s the place you call home.” Taking on a city alone, thousands of miles away from home and close friends, is a major challenge, but Payseur finds Brooklyn to be his “favorite place in the world” with it giving him “a ton of creative energy and always keeps me moving forward.”
Payseur’s display of being able to take on loneliness and find a silver lining in stimulating his creative endeavors inspired me to snap out of my negativity and use my creative environment at Emerson to my fullest potential to become closer to my career endeavors. Somersault lyrically proves that there is nothing wrong with appreciating one’s own company. I’ve learned once you learn to become comfortable with yourself it results in a rise of self confidence and a more positive state of mind.
