"even I am so heavy...."
"Pollen" by Brooklyn based bedroom pop, indie rock singer-songwriter / producer Matty Frank and from his new EP "American Sadboi" is a lush sonic explosion with a lot of things going on. Like a stuffed carry on luggage for a last minute vacay, there is a lot to unpack here. Matty has a penchant for dramatics and not over the top (for being over the top sake) bro explosions like, um, a band like Imagine Dragons but emotionally dramatic, soulful 'rip your guts out at dinner' dramatics that are informed by real passions. To me, stylistically, "Pollen", overall might be described as a boy band song if boy band songs weren't stupid (or vapid) because Matty has a wonderfully passionate croon / wail with fluid pop forward shapes. The music if one were to dissect it blends tones and progs that have more to do with classic heavy rock, emo, indie rock, lounge punk and R&B indie fused together as opposed to broadly just pop. The lovely guitar picking and pop tones feel deeply sincere and when the soft rock ascensions start and build you can feel a sort of surreal slow motion haze of iconic rockism's (I actually felt like an amalgam of The Who and Jeff Rosenstock texturally - emotionally) while at the same time, the layered vocal presentation feels sort of like a contemporary indie pop / rock version of Boyz II Men (now don't give me that look).
"This song is about realizing you can still experience bouts of depression when you're usually a source of positivity for those around you. It also explores lingering feelings for someone after the end of a relationship that are no longer requited, and how it's inevitable that sad experiences will bring down even the happiest of people at times. But that's just how it goes!"
Anyway you slice it, Matty's sound is compelling as is some of his overall though processes behind the "American Sadboi" EP:
"Sad boys have soft smiles. I read something like this on tumblr a few years ago. Embarrassing that you’re about to find out Tumblr inspired some of this ep! The mystique of skinny straight white boys holding - not necessarily smoking - cigarettes and being sad for the aesthetic was popular in small parts of this small part of the internet. Jokes about it being sad boy hour, soft smiles only, etc; I’m not sure if I have the vernacular precise but basically the abstract concept of Timothee Chalamet was trendy before he was.
I thought that if sadness is something you're able to try on to feel the feeling but also to feel cool in a way, then things are probably not all bad for you. As a gay person who grew up alongside the trajectory of queerness becoming normalized in media and watching gay marriage become legal while I was in college, I felt that of course things were still bad for queer people, but they were not all bad anymore. I would still worry about walking too gay on the way to a house party but then have no problem making out with a boy on the sidelines when I got there. I would still feel weird about painting my nails but then discover I love drag. I would discover the open wound of the "no fems" community on grindr but then expose myself to hyperfemininity and the love from my effeminate friends to heal that wound in myself. Soft smiling with my first boyfriend when he took too much pride in being able to make girls think he was straight, I felt like a gay sad boy, but boi feels less binary so we're going with that."
I thought that if sadness is something you're able to try on to feel the feeling but also to feel cool in a way, then things are probably not all bad for you. As a gay person who grew up alongside the trajectory of queerness becoming normalized in media and watching gay marriage become legal while I was in college, I felt that of course things were still bad for queer people, but they were not all bad anymore. I would still worry about walking too gay on the way to a house party but then have no problem making out with a boy on the sidelines when I got there. I would still feel weird about painting my nails but then discover I love drag. I would discover the open wound of the "no fems" community on grindr but then expose myself to hyperfemininity and the love from my effeminate friends to heal that wound in myself. Soft smiling with my first boyfriend when he took too much pride in being able to make girls think he was straight, I felt like a gay sad boy, but boi feels less binary so we're going with that."
You can feel the deep hard reflections in Matty's sonic art. I like art of any kind that is about something and you get that here.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.instagram.com/mattyfrankmusic/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/mattyfrankmusic?lang=en
https://mfammartino.wixsite.com/mattyfrank
https://www.tiktok.com/@mattyfrankmusic?
https://twitter.com/mattyfrankmusic?lang=en
https://mfammartino.wixsite.com/mattyfrank
https://www.tiktok.com/@mattyfrankmusic?
Some sort of demon alien really inspired by this planet's depressed indie rock lesbians! Think Snail Mail, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Soccer Mommy, Mitski, Pinegrove, Clairo, etc etc.
Matty Frank, Folk, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, divergent pop, soul pop, indie r&B, lounge punk, "Pollen", EP ""American Sadboi",
No comments:
Post a Comment