As a writer, I understand the idea of "starving artist". I am a maestro of words but when I browse other websites looking to freelance (i.e. make money) the speech is always the same: we can't afford to pay you but we'll look good on your resume. Well, fuck your name on my resume and fuck you. If you don't want to feel sorry for me it's fine because I don't need your pity. I never asked for a skill that couldn't pay the rent (get what I did with the artist name there?) and I don't expect to be a multi-millionaire, but here's where I get really mad and you should too.
All I've been reading about lately is how good this new Beyonce thing is called "Lemonade". From what I can tell it's an HBO special but I feel like there is an album or at least one song about "Becky with the good hair" and everyone is debating over who that really is. I've listened to Beyonce and let me tell you something: I don't care. Kanye West is releasing albums and proclaiming himself a genius and you know what? I don't care about him either.
So, yes, it upsets and it should upset you as well that the majority of people making the least amount of money in music right now and the people making the most money should be switched. When I say I listen to a lot of music it's not some gimmick done for my writing-- this is real and has been since 1999-- so when I say Pay The Rent makes better music than most of these so-called talent-less hacks who are making millions you should know that I'm not just blowing steam and I'm not just some internet nerd who is too cool for the mainstream. But when will the rest of the world catch up? When will the true talent rise to the top and the fake, self-absorbed bullshit go back under the rock from whence it came?
It might not be in my lifetime. I hope that people of my generation are raising kids to find substance in the arts and not whatever passes for art these days. We can have differing opinions and we're allowed to like different things but there is no reason why Coldplay should be a band that anyone has heard of outside of their family and closest of friends.
Pay The Rent begins this cassette with those ohm-like tones that I'd have a better way to describe if most writers who made money weren't such shit. No, really, if this was being covered by everyone and given the recognition it deserved i wouldn't struggle for genres and adjectives. I also believe that would push the collective creative even more forward, but that's not the point here. Dreamy, galactic guitar strums take us into something angelic which I like to think of as a little slice of Heaven.
It's either aliens or a chorus but it is simply divine. Whirrs and laser synth comes through and you just get a sense of uplifting. Guitar note patterns come through in a way which somewhat reminds me of meowing (Tito did wake up for them) but then it turns into this almost sort of singing, like a chanting as Monks would do.
On the flip side of this cassette we find swirly whirls (Yeah, that's not the technical term for it) coming in strong with some back and forth patterns like instrumental hip hop. Bubbles and guitar notes begin to evolve into a sort of FNL flow. There is also this staggering feeling of a radio frequency which needs pointing out. Chords are strummed and I am reminded of The Cure. This might be all made possible right now by a harp. Bells and wind chimes see the music out until it returns- but only for a moment- before the end.
I understand that I might have let my emotions get the better of me in this review. Perhaps I should just continue to ignore the mainstream and hope one day for change. Like these artists making this music, I can only hope that what we do so well can help pay the rent one day but it might not be in our lifetime. I also maybe shouldn't have name-dropped but I'm not going to take any of it back.
Whatever it is you feel about it the fact is that my earlier outburst is at least relevant to this review. The fact that my tantrum made you feel something just goes to show you my point: "Soft On Glass" can make you feel while all of these artists making all this money just leave me feeling so empty inside. I know, I know, I don't want to use other artists to build up anymore in the sense that I don't want to feel like I'm tearing someone down to build someone else up but when did we begin replacing emotion with hashtags?
There is going to come a time when everyone of us dies. 2016 has been taking some great people already and we're not even halfway through the year. They say that right before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but I've met people who died and came back so I know that's not true.
I feel like most people have a sense of peace, of calm, and just safety knowing they're going somewhere better and leaving their worries behind when they die. There is also that whole thing where if you can picture the soul going up to Heaven like in the cartoons then the music plays and angels play their harps and all of that. But yeah, this is the music of death but going into the afterlife with no regrets and knowing that death isn't the end it just makes things better. If you can't hear that, Pay The Rent will at least leave you calm and serene.
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