So Much For Solidarity And All That Jazz

Monday 4 May 2020

It’s been a grey day all around, with a thick cover of clouds over the city. If the sun’s appearance after lunch had made a blue sky seem imminent, these dull clouds soon put paid to it.

I’m writing this piece while listening to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. This slow-paced space rock album sounds like deserted streets and lonely figures — the melancholy sound, you could say, of a city in confinement. The opening track sounds like it takes place in the afternoon, with the sun shining down on streets bereft of people.

I’ve also been listening a lot to Low’s last album Double Negative, which sounds like a world falling into disarray. While the singers might be singing like angels, their words are layered six inches thick with angst. The singers also sound like they’re being assaulted on all sides by some unknowable, machine-like force that’s wreaking havoc on nature, destroying and distorting it beyond all recognition until all that’s left is a toxic wasteland.

With all the problems in the world right now, I can’t help but think that these albums convey them better than most other albums out there. But while listening to them makes for good catharsis, too much listening could drive me insane.