Singing your age
A bit of a rant here, mostly about the short album reviews found in Dutch music magazine Oor. It’s also a bit about cultural interpretation, gender and age when it comes to music.
Two reviews caught my eye in this month’s issue of Oor, both by the same reviewer. This person is a frequent contributor of reviews to Oor and often covers bands in the indie / alternative sphere, often shoegaze related, but not always. Dutch is not my first language and I don’t claim to be fluent in it, but I do take the time to read these short reviews at home in the print magazine. These short pieces sometimes form the basis of an informal lesson with a native Dutch speaker. When I think I understand the words and the tone of the review, I read it out loud in my best (or worst!) Dutch accent. If the listener laughs, I assume I got it almost kinda sorta right. 😆 I usually don't agree with this particular reviewer’s take on albums and wonder why they draw on inaccessible comparisons or irrelevant information instead of just explaining what they hear and letting the reader decide for themselves.
What irked me recently is not the usual use of half of the words of the column to tell something that is already well known or covered elsewhere. It’s blatant age-ism against a woman, one who happens to be close to my own age.
This review of Paula Kelley’s latest album digs into Paula’s "childlike voice” equating her to the Teletubby known as Tinky Winky… who should ‘rightly’ be strangled for sounding irritating. What is more is that Paula’s age is noted by the reviewer and shamed for sounding like a child at her age.
The review goes on to wonder why Paula Kelley doesn’t sound like she did in the Drop Nineteens.
I’ll admit that I am very allergic to child-like vocals in music; I don’t enjoy listening to it. I test it out every now and then, to see if I’m still allergic. I often characterize my dislike for it as ‘baby doll’ vocals, which I realize is not very nice. This sound has it’s place in highly stylized pop I suppose, but it’s just not my thing. This is perhaps why I have mixed feelings about the band Deary, but more on that below.
I don’t really care for Paula Kelley’s voice on most of the songs on her new release Blinking As the Starlight Burns Out, though the opening track “Party Line” is okay. Several tracks are super shiny and overly polished pop. “God Will Someone Tell Me” sounds like a Cardigans-esque romp and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, why this reviewer holds Paula Kelley accountable for her voice not sounding her age, I don’t understand and find unacceptable. How many music reviews can you think of where a man’s age is brought into account for anything? Let’s not even get into comparing a woman with a Teletubby or suggesting that someone deserves to be strangled! Where are the reviews saying that Stephen Tyler should sound like his age or start wearing an appropriate number of scarves or jewelry for someone in his late 70s?! Why is Paula Kelley’s age relevant to mention here?
If I had to sum up Blinking As the Starlight Burns Out, Paula Kelley has made songs that sound like they would fit perfectly as the soundtrack for an American retail shopping experience – you know, teen girls shopping at wherever they shop for clothes nowadays. Perhaps Paula knows exactly what she’s doing here.
A recent tune featuring Paula Kelley that I do like is “Angus Says” by Chatham Rise.
Unfortunate for you reader, I am not done, but of course you can always quit now.
Deary’s new album Birding is also covered in the latest issue of Oor. The review starts off talking about an amusement park in The Netherlands, Efteling. The album’s sound is compared to a ride where you hang above the ground, but instead of being thrown to the heavens, you instead sway your way through mist, shadows and… waving mechanical elves???
There is not much more to learn (or imagine) in the review … Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, English dream pop legacy, bla bla blaaa. Perhaps the most useful comment to me is band member Ben Easton quoted as saying, “our last EP was us trying to be deary. This album is us being deary.” I wonder if he knows that a reviewer out there thinks that sounds like waving mechanical elves lost in the misty shadows of the woods?
Press info about Birding notes the album revolves around birds and “feathered friends” as well as the “direct impact humans have on the world around us”. According to Ben Easton, “the album is all about human consequences”. I find this interesting because I have always associated birds in music with freedom – the feeling of it, the desire for it, sometimes the loneliness that comes along with it. I start to wonder if this is another point of my disconnect with Deary.
I think there are some nice elements of Birding though overall it feels like background music to me. Perhaps thanks to Dottie Cockram’s vocals being, as the reviewer suggests, “more texture than text and largely dissolved in walls of guitars and reverb”. Agreed and also nothing wrong with that or with background music.
I also find it interesting that Deary’s social media presence seems intent on sharing a lot of process towards final product, whether that product be the music itself or a video for a song. For some reason Deary doesn’t feel like a band for someone like me, or to come back to age, maybe it’s just not music for someone my age? I don’t know. I note that the reviewer doesn’t pick on Dottie Cockram’s age when describing her voice as “high and thin”. Definitely doesn’t sound like a Teletubby, does it?!
The outlier on Birding is “Garden of Eden”, an acoustic number which I like because I imagine it being performed by someone else. I don’t mean that as a dig either. Weirdly that someone else is Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Yes, seriously. Good or bad, better or worse, I don’t know! It’s just my imagination wandering.
I’m not sure where this leaves anything about music reviews for me other than disappointed. Is a singer’s age relevant to their sound, to an album review? Should Stephen Tyler cut back on jewelry???? Just kidding! Of course he shouldn’t!
I am interested to hear what others think of these two albums or my take on these reviews OR EVEN STEPHEN TYLER. I’m open to critique and your imagination too!
To close my rant, I’ll just add this slice of Dave Grohl in apparent guitar ecstasy on the cover of the magazine. 🤣
