Rusty Santos - Outside Versus In
(self-released)
In my review of Rusty Santos's last album, Bad is Good, I spent a good deal of the time lamenting the state of indie pop or in my most pessimistic moments, lamenting that it exists at all; my problem(s) being that 1) too often is indie pop, as a genre form, an excuse to write simple songs, that is, because the pop form comes so naturally, at least for Western societies, it is in a sense a Folk mode—of the people—and to follow this idea means that it must connect on as broad a level as possible, at least for the audience in mind. This means creating works which must necessarily be, as defined by the purpose, simple and easy to grasp. Aligned with this are the pop conventions which even if the artist isn't attempting a broad-based communicative effort, still are heavily relied on too much of the time, simply because they are an established way of writing music, and if one is not trying to push the boundaries of music, they are quite easy to master. This leads to 2) when such conventions are so strictly adhered to, the result is a kind of popular mimesis—the Clear Channel-idea of pop music—albeit it articulates a minority viewpoint as opposed to a mainstream one, or does so in a way that it only appeals to niche audiences even if it talks about universal themes of love, as pop music is wont to do (for example, the segment of indie pop that expresses love as a function of adolescent angst—this merely looks at it the phenomenon from the perspective of the outsider rather than mainstream pop which often, if not always, champions the dominant culture).
I brought this up, in the last review, and now again in this one, because I believe Santos is aiming for, and does indeed create, pop music that attempts to distance itself from the norms of indie pop. Through methods such as adding elements of psychedelia (although without sounding anything like psyche pop) and using semi-non-standard song structures, he is able to innovate enough that he places himself way ahead of the pack even if he is merely following in the steps of the actual trailblazers of the form. A copycat of a progressive band is hands down better than a copycat of the rest of the boring crud any day. What is interesting about Outside Versus In is the protean nature of Santos, at one point sounding Oberst-y, at another Malkmus-esque, among others; in one sense, it adds an extra dimension to the album, as opposed to typical planar pop which is usually composed in a single style, but in another, it makes it appear as if Santos is still searching for his voice. While songs like "Bibimpop" are backward looking, the album as a whole is of a progressive nature without truly breaking those bonds.
|
