EVERY DAY GETS A LITTLE CLOSER SONG PROFESSIONAL
EVERY DAY GETS A LITTLE CLOSER SONG SERIES

Means we decided no singer, no leader, no interviews, no press photos. We were proud and shy motherfuckers, and we engaged with the world thusly. We knew that there were other people out there who felt the same way, and we wanted to bypass what we saw as unnecessary hurdles, and find those people on our own. Talking about punk rock with freelancers, then as now, was like farting at a fundraiser, a thing that got you kicked out of the party.

EVERY DAY GETS A LITTLE CLOSER SONG PROFESSIONAL

We started making this noise together when we were young and broke вЂ“ the only thing we knew for sure was that professional music-writers seemed hopelessly out of touch and nobody gave a shit about the shit we loved except for us. And all along we've been tilting at windmills, worried that we're about to get bucked from the saddle. It's just that we know that music is just a thing that people make in between bigger struggles. It's just that we like the sound of things a little out of tune. It's just that there's a certain sort of ringing that we chase when we rattle our bones in our tiny practice-room. It's just that we make decisions based on a particular stubborn calculus.

We feel like most of the stuff we have to muddle through is the same sort of stuff that countless other bands have to muddle through. We do our best to get along, to stay engaged with each other and with the shared labour. This is a dream conjured up by music nerds like Levek himself, but it probably never existed in that way, and neither is it true that music fans donвЂ™t examine the art of today deeper when they are given a reason to do so.The dull fact is, we spend most of our time engaged with the task at hand вЂ“ rehearsing, writing, booking tours. It sounds like he longs for the day - his music is certain backwards-looking in every way - when the album and the artist were venerated, when you would put on an LP ( Look a Little Closer falls conveniently within that formatвЂ™s 40-minute, more or less, capacity) and listen to it all the way through, studying its album art as you let yourself get lost in its world. But this strikes to the core of LevekвЂ™s unwarranted sense of self-importance.

If we are tempted to see this as a mishmash of styles with little cohesion, LevekвЂ™s choice of an album title would seem poised to dispute our reaction. They also sound out of place on an album that strives for eclecticism but sounds closer to two different sessions combined onto one disc, which sort of makes you feel like thereвЂ™s something outdated about Look a Little CloserвЂ™s commitment to the album format. These songs have a kinetic feel to them, as if exploring structures or traveling purposefully from one mood to another. Look a Little Closer gets better during its second half, when Levek allows himself to get looser, playing with grooves and textures without the need for structures that obviously bore him - how else to describe someone who seems so utterly bored with the very idea of a song (which is a pretty amazing thing if you pause to think about it)? From вЂњMuscat MingleвЂќ through вЂњSolemn Feeling Forever Healing,вЂќ Levek sounds freer, and thereвЂ™s a more palpable sense of joy in the creation of music. They also highlight LevekвЂ™s inability to write songs, which may simply be an unwillingness to sully his art with aspirations to accessibility, a notion held far too often these days. The albumвЂ™s most twee songs (вЂњWith a Slow BurnвЂќ and вЂњBlack Mold Grow,вЂќ for instance) suffer the most because they hinge upon the affected and self-parodic. calls attention to the fact that its creator has studied well, and the problem is that Levek thinks this is a good thing when in fact it merely highlights his by-the-books ordinariness. ThereвЂ™s a misplaced sincerity here that mistakes the mimic actвЂ™s desperation for good intentions and casual, no-stakes affection for respect.

EVERY DAY GETS A LITTLE CLOSER SONG SERIES

On Look a Little Closer, Levek cycles through a series of genre influences, all of them de rigueur: the vaguely British-sounding pastoral psych-folk of вЂњCanterbury Bell,вЂќ the jazzy funk of вЂњMuscat MingleвЂќ that so immediately recalls the 1970s, the whimsical Gallic pop telegraphed by the title of вЂњFrench LessonsвЂќ and the loungey bossa nova of вЂњTerra Treasures,вЂќ which colors inside the lines so well it could be a parody of itself. We might deny that such music is a product of our times, that every era had its forgettable musicians, and while the latter is probably true, there seems to be a new, more specific role that this music plays in the present era. Look a Little Closer is an example of what we might call pleasant but faceless music, the вЂњindieвЂќ equivalent of elevator music.

Every day gets a little closer song