Drab City
Recently described by MOJO magazine as “The new king and queen of fever-dream-pop”, and with the release of their much-anticipated debut album Good Songs For Bad People due out on 12th June on Bella Union Records, Drab City have today shared a new track, ‘Live Free and Die When It’s Cool’. A feral youth arrives in rags to the city of gold where he watches soft, fashionably dressed people discuss art over locally sourced meals and reflects on his traumatic past. Musically, the track welds dub, 70s rock, and hip-hop drum breaks to a third hand AMPEX tape deck found in a dump on the city outskirts.
A heady air of dislocation envelops Drab City’s debut album, where songs of innocence and experience merge with dub, hip-hop, dream-pop and jazzy soundtrack vibes to intoxicating effect. Drab City are fixated on social alienation, violent revenge, and (perhaps) romantic love as salvation; topics not new in music, but listening to Drab City in 2020, one is struck by how uncommon they’ve become. Lyrically, these songs often project punkish angst and resentment. Previous releases, ‘Working For the Men’ is a degraded service worker’s revenge ballad, imagining male tormenters brought to a violent end, and ‘Hand On My Pocket’ tells of a destitute, wandering youth. One night she meets a stranger on a desert road and is told of a nearby city where a soft, rich citizenry make easy targets. Class war is palpable. Other songs are more opaque, but seem to speak of being the black sheep of the family, or being weighed down by the dullness of hometown life. Yet the casual listener might not notice the violence as the music itself is far from abrasive. Dreamy and ethereal, a foundation of flute, vibraphone, and jazzy guitar chord melody can switch to drum machines or funk-inflected girl-group pop at a moment’s notice. It’s a flurry of 20th century references, combining and recombining at such a schizophrenic pace, the overall effect is something that could only be conjured in our frenzied present. At once catchy and unfamiliar, the melodic, welcoming soundscapes are a Trojan horse for the band’s antisocial outlook.
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