Look. Let’s face it, I’m getting bored. Not of music. Not of writing about it in my own warped way. But this musicians in the bath thing. I’m all washed up over it. I’ve tapped into it far too much for my own good. It’s time to clean up and move onto something else before the bubble bursts. I'm pulling the plug on it. (OK I’ll stop now)
If you follow me on Twitter (here) or if you’ve spent anything more than a couple of minutes scanning through this blog, you’ll probably know that I’ve posted a huge amount about musicians releasing promotional photos that feature them in the bath.
Somebody once told me that in today’s fast moving society if you want to make a point you have to keep saying it over and over for anyone to take notice - the turnover of information is so quick, so much gets lost. It’s why I’ve been banging on about this a lot - to the point where I've become more annoying than I usually am. I hope by now at least one or two of you, when you see yet another musician posing in the bath to promote their music (and trust me you will see more of them, of that there is no doubt) will think to yourselves: “Gosh there’s another. Breaking More Waves was right.”
I also hope you’ll agree that:
1. It’s a really odd thing to do. No other profession would consider promoting their product by getting its manufacturer to pose in the bath – naked or clothed.
2. But then musicians are odd people. Nice (generally), but odd.
3. What’s even weirder though is that lots of journalists will put these pictures on their publications and make no commentary on it at all. As if putting a picture of a naked (or clothed) musician sitting in the bath is the most natural thing to do in the world. Of course some of these journos will claim ‘It’s all about the music.” IN WHICH CASE WHY PUT A BLOODY PICTURE OF THE ARTIST ON YOUR SITE OR PUBLICATION ANYWAY? Just write about and post the music and stop contradicting yourselves*
4. Journalists are also very odd.
OK, I’ll calm down now. This is meant to be a music blog.
Here’s another picture of an artist sitting in the bath. It’s her second song released to the world and her second bath picture. And talking of seconds, here’s a second (not 'sophomore' as seems to be the trend with a lot of American influenced music writers - guys, quit it's use please, the word isn't even understood in many English speaking countries outside of the US) thought; maybe it’s not odd at all. Maybe it is in fact the new norm. Maybe I’m odd for thinking that a nice photo of a musician holding their instrument (maybe even playing it) would be a decent and sensible thing to have. Mind you, I’m not sure how interesting a picture of a ‘laptop producer’ staring at his Macbook Pro would be. Maybe all laptop producers should still sit in the bath.
So what of Rhain’s second song?
Josephine is a piece of highly unorthodox piano and string based pop that (as I suggested in my introductory piece about her in February) will appeal to fans of Joanna Newsom and Regina Spektor. From the opening line where we find her singing of watching the subject of the song sleeping in solitude it has a slightly menacing, obsessive, observant air to it. “What kind of blood do you bleed, ‘cos all I can taste is metallic lustre,” she intones. You almost expect her to break out into a cackle of witch like evil laughter after that line. “They told me you are with another, so I crave you even more. I creep a little closer to you, want to hear the breath that you breathe,” she adds later. OK, it’s all slightly uncomfortable listening, but hell, isn’t that better than listening to some guy sing about how you used to call him on his cellphone, and now you’re drinking champagne with some girls he doesn’t know? I’d say it’s 100% better. Maybe Drake needs to up his bath picture game to be a little more interesting. Oh hold on… what’s this?
Damn. I really should have known shouldn't I?
Here's the song.
Rhain - Josephine
*Of course I'm fully aware that the beauty of any art form, including writing is the occasional contradiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment