If you want a splash of pop with your melancholy, Joplin Rice’s Low Hum is the perfect cocktail for you. Rice’s sunbathed, dreamy melodies just barely hide the acid bite of his lyrics. The opener “Arrow” kicks off the tone:
i made a million things last week & i love them
but no one can ever touch them
i’m not leaving here soon
but loneliness don’t call from this room
There isn’t a song here that doesn’t operate that way. But sometimes Rice’s songs are less a blunt tool and more a twist of the knife. It’s easy to bliss out on the innocuousness of the music, but there’s always something that reminds you: the world’s not such a great place.
everything is fair
everyone can change
you’re wasting all your time
dying inside
& no one even cares
it has to be the cold
driving you insane
just wait until the spring
& you’ll be smiling
& nobody will know
everything is fair
everyone can change
you’re wasting all your time
dying inside
& no one even cares (“Fair”)
Maybe Rice finds solace in his music. I know I feel at peace listening to it, in spite of the subject matter. The album was released through Practice Tape Records, the official record label of one of my favorite blogs, the modern folk music of america. (A blog that has its own record label? Hmmmm…) You can name your press for the digital version on Bandcamp, or score a cassette if you’re a hipster like that.
Joplin Rice — Facebook, Bandcamp
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