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I WROTE THIS POST. NO AI

THERE'S NO AI IN THIS POST

Billy Corgan is a generational icon who never got his due. Smashing Pumpkins should've been inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame by now.

Smashing Pumpkins have the most incredible body of work of that generation (stuff it, Nirvana fans). Billy brought his A game to everything they did - songs, studio, live, video. All of it fucking S-tier.

Billy and Pumpkins belong to an elite category of bands with generation defining radio singles/videos - AND - great albums and deep cuts.

Some bands define a generation but become forever associated with a specific pop culture moment. Other bands are sleepers who fell through the cracks, but whose music aged incredibly well. (like the VU - their record label flubbed it, I think)

Pumpkins is a rare band that completely transcends this divide. "Tonight, Tonight" and "1979" are nostalgic 90s staples - AND - their legacy continues into the 2000s and beyond - Gerard Way (all hail) name drops Billy, Chino Moreno is a fan. CHINO FUCKING MORENO.

If that isn't a testament to Billy's talent and musicianship, I don't know what is.

So why, you ask was Kurt dubbed the voice of that generation and not Billy?

Right place/time with "Smells" pretty much sums it up. The media likes to anoint pop culture saviors, and that song and video sure fucking helped.

It helped Nirvana play the role of "wrecker of 80s pop culture cheese."

Courtesy, who? COURTESY BILLY (see this YouTube clip from Rick Beato interview where Billy let the world know who was the real architect for guitar sound on Nevermind)

Billy's personality didn't help

I won't be so weird as not to acknowledge the role that Billy's - shall we say - "difficult" personality played.

Billy doesn’t play the guarded "man of few words" who doesn't take himself too seriously. This exposes him to hate from other bands or the rock journalism establishment. And then he's unable to “play it cool" towards the haters.

Had Kurt lived, he eventually would have had to navigate music and pop culture post grunge. The media and the rock journalism establishment would've turned on him (they always do). Billy would've been waiting in the wings to be his successor (and Billy has the range to do things other than straight guitar rock if he wants to).

Instead, after Kurt died Billy briefly inherited his crown by default. This had the downstream effect that when pop culture moved on from alt rock, the establishment couldn't turn on Kurt. Instead, it was Billy who got caught up in the backlash.

The rock establishment crowned Radiohead as the premier post-grunge alternative band, not the Pumpkins, only because, unlike Billy, Thom Yorke and co. were masters at the "effortless cool" schtick.

Just to drive this point home - Adore was the exact same transition from hard rock or trad rock to moping electronica that Radiohead did on Kid A. Only difference is Pumpkins burned bridges with the indie scene while also failing to please the masses (who expected another "Bullet With Butterfly Wings").

Smashing Pumpkins legendary 90s run also came at the cost of their sanity, so there's that as well.

Billy Corgan - the voice of a generation that Wasn't

Billy Corgan - the rock savior we didn't deserve.

But Pumpkins nevertheless remains the GOAT whether y'all like it or not. Their pinkpop 1994 performance says it all (D'arcy is so fucking cool *swoon*)

EDIT - y'all call me a schizo while FAILING TO RESPOND TO A SINGLE POINT. Try harder, losers

“Mystery Plane” lyrics

My Daddy drives a UFO
Drops me off and then he goes
Leaves me on this mystery plane
But he'll be back for me again

Oh, Oh yes he will yeah!

Now I just can't identify
With this world so I don't try
Square pegs don't fit in round holes
And I can't fit into these clothes

No

My daddy's unidentified
My mom says I just appeared inside
Looks like a case of hit and run
But off the record it's no fun

No, no, no fun no!

My daddy he'll come back again
And take me from this mystery plane
And maybe if I go real slow
He'll let me drive his UFO, Oh, Oh, Oh

Oh Boy
My Daddy drives a UFO
u F o

Interpretation/analysis

When I first listened to this I thought the “mystery plane” was a UFO.  Then I actually went and read the lyrics.  Turns out the mystery plane is planet Earth.  The protagonist of the song is half human, half alien.  His daddy (the alien) impregnated his mom in her sleep (“My mom says I just appeared inside”) and left him stranded on our planet.

He doesn’t even try to fit in amongst the earthlings.  Instead he awaits the return of “daddy.”  Maybe once daddy comes back he’ll get to drive the UFO? (but only if he goes slow)

Retro-Americana/creature feature.  Classic Cramps.

A few years ago, a friend of mine whose opinions I trust recommended Drab Majesty.

We saw them open for Slowdive and I became a fan shortly after.

“Photograph” is a favorite.

I want to tell you why it slaps, and why you should give it another listen.

The Genre of "Photograph"

When I first heard “Photograph,” it struck me as uncannily dark in the tradition of Joy Division’s “Disorder” - an upbeat song concealing something devastating.

“Photograph” doesn’t convey heaviness and sluggishness through the slow, crawling grooves that you find in “sad indie” or “dark trip hop.”  It’s breezily up-tempo, with bouncing, driving grooves.  This is its surface happiness.

“Photograph” is covertly sad, owing to its minor harmonies, autumnal guitar strums, yearning keyboard lines, and the dark timbre of Deb Demure’s voice.

And, most importantly, the lyrics, which give the lie to the band’s playing -

The Story of “Photograph”

In the song, photography serves as a metaphor for an objectifying, possessive attitude in relationships.

In the lyrics, “you” is the boyfriend and photographer.  “I” is the narrator, Deb Demure, who plays the role of the boyfriend’s conscience, watching and whispering lyrics in his ear as he shoots.

“She” is his girl and his prop.

They hit the town Saturday night while the band plays, going from spot to spot, station to station, adventure to adventure, no thought for tomorrow, stopping only to snap photos. First verse -

The feeling’s taken hold
Disappointed by every single pose
She doesn’t look right to your eye
Does just what you say
And is it any better?
The more you shoot, the more she slips away

“You keep shooting photos and she obeys your commands, but no matter the angle or the pose, you remain unsatisfied."

The more he “shoots” - tries to remake her in his perfect image - the more she slips away because a person (unlike a photo) isn’t an object that can be possessed. 

A person is fundamentally a separate individual.  She always escapes our grasp.

I want to highlight one line in particular -

“She doesn’t look right to your eye”

This is a brilliant double meaning. As Deb notes the boyfriend's photographic fault-finding, he also comments on the void of intimacy between him and his girl - she doesn’t look directly at him (mirroring his inability to see her without the filter of the camera).

Now, the chorus -

You took a picture of a person
You know when it’s right
And you’re still wondering if she’s worth it
You know, I know, you know

Deb tells the boyfriend the core truth of the song and the root of his disappointment - that the photo is not the girl.  But he only vaguely senses that there’s something wrong-headed here.

Second verse -

You only see the best
Forgetting all the rest
Rendering an image for the press
You garner all the fame
But does it really matter?
There’s something always missing in the frame

The boyfriend is in hot pursuit of the perfect photo, and Deb comments on the vanity and futility of it - “Your photographic skill is irrelevant because you’re making a category error.  Any photo, no matter how perfect, leaves something out.”

His photos are representations of his girl. They are not her. They may capture an aesthetic ideal, but they will never capture the person.

“There’s something always missing in the frame,” sings Deb, because a sterile image has no personality, no inner life, thoughts, hopes, fears, feelings, or choices.  Only surface style and pose.  What is he really possessing by possessing photos?

The interlude -

And down you go
Around you go again
Down you go, around you go
And down you go again

The boyfriend refuses to hear Deb’s wisdom, instead furiously struggling to get the perfect angle, which leads to the climax of the song -

Call yourself a photographer
Of dizzy days, of wine and laughter
You can see, open the aperture
And now the lights are brighter
Moving close, the end grows tighter
Can't rebel, open the aperture
Our beauty, fatal minded
Turned into an advertisement
Fantasies, open the aperture
These photographs reflecting emptiness
You can't pretend there's no light now
Open the aperture

The frenetic photo snapping reaches its peak as Deb repeats his point - that all of the activity, hedonism, and photos are vain, and amount to nothing more than “advertisement,” “fantasy,” and “emptiness.”

To wrap up…

She’s everything he wants, save what matters - a person.  The more perfect the copy, the more she fades away.

The photo is 2d.  Depth is an illusion.

It’s the “uncanny valley” in visual media - when a picture or a movie is too perfect, the eye can tell it’s not real.

Consequently, the boyfriend feels a sense of futility.  His frantic photo taking is like drinking ocean water to satisfy his thirst for authentic connection. 

His taking mentality won’t allow it.

Glitzy and empty. He alienates himself from her by chasing her aesthetic perfection.

He can loom; he can stoop; he can crouch. He will never capture an angle that tells her story. 

She’s a person.  The picture is only a picture.

(analysis of why the video for Lazy is amazing and the “video” for Walk is absolute trash)

Litany of Disclaimers

Lets get this out of the way first

I'm aware that this post isn't a quickie. Your shitty attneiton span is not my fucking problem

I'm also aware "band X > band Y" posts are boring and repetitive.

I'm not even saying Silversun Pickups > than Beach House.  I'm not into vain tier lists or tournament bracket pissing contests.

But if you want to go there then I'd say that Silversun Pickups is good but Beach House edges them out on career stamina and maybe a few other categories (don't want to go down on this rabbit hole right now)

Walk in the Park is the better song, actually (but it's close). I don't really listen to Silversun Pickups anymore but I was a huge fan in the 2010s starting shortly after Lazy Eye came out.  I saw them live twice

I'm aware Alex and Victoria had nothing to do with the content of Walk in the Park video. This is not a criticism of them. (Actually it is insofar as Victoria's almost-as-bad Silver Soul video ruined that one)

I really have no idea what the sub consensus is on the "videos" for Teen Dream songs.  I remember getting a library copy of the album and watching a couple of them and I just couldn't...

If any of y'all actually like some of those videos then I guess more power to ya. For me, it was Walk in the Park, and then Silver Soul, and then "nope, I'm out.."

Maybe some of the other ones are good?  Maybe not?  I'll never know unless someone here can convince me to give them a shot (unlikely)

FUck, that was long

Anyway, enough with all the "inb4" bs, let's dive in.

Walk in the Park needed a video like Lazy Eye

That's it.  That's the bottom line. If you're dumb you can stop reading now and fuck you. (prolly just lost 90 percent of the sub. oh well)

I was a senior in high school when Lazy Eye hit my TV screen.

I didn't have the cultural vocabulary to place it exactly, but I did notice that the video was different from the theatrical camp of the mid 2000s pop-punk bands like Fall Out Boy, Panic!, MCR etc.

It was different from the pop punk wave.  More "lo-fi" (to use that trite word) - It was down to earth and relatable like the best of the emo generation (just minus the camp).  "Diary aesthetic without the guyliner" as it were. Made me swoon.

Very personal.  Very youthful "coming of age" just like classic Ride and Slowdive. Indie at its best.

Walk in the Park video was a horrible missed opportunity

If the Lazy Eye video was indie at its best, Walk in the Park video was indie at its fucking worst.

If you look at Walk in the Park musically and lyrically, it's also highly personal, cathartic, and sincere.  Just like a great indie movie.  I'm not going to break it down here.  I've already done that in this post. (Click the link, loser.  it's not hard)

Then you watch the video, and ugh... just... just no.  Eww

I would go through it here, but I'm sure y'all have seen it and I don't want to run the risk of ruining the song for myself all over again (thankfully, I've forgotten some of the godawful details)

Anyway, when I say "indie at it's worst," what do I mean?

One word - Ironic

The Beatles set the template

Infamously, with "I am the Walrus"

A lot of literate fans and critics are into the "ooooh, what does it mean" esoteric interpretation thing.

"I am the Walrus" was a massive prank directed at those people.  "LOL it means absolutely nothing!!"

Warhol did it with the goddamn soup cans.

Lou Reed did it with “metal machine music” and no one fell for it (except Pitchfork, unsurprisingly)

If you're the kid in Emperor New Clothes calling a spade a spade, you run the risk of "looking dumb" and "not getting it."  Of being "basic" and "normie”

"Walk in the Park" video is this aesthetic, taken to absurdity.

What Could Have Been

My first exposure to Beach House was actually the video for Heart of Chambers.  I thought, "oh they sound lazy like they're not trying.  They're indie."  I myself was basic and normie at the time. I’ve since seen the light on Devotion.

The video for Walk in the Park turned me off to Beach House initially.

I thought, "oh, they're indie but not in a good way.  They're ironic and don't respect their own work."

It's only when I listened to Walk in the Park audio-only that I started to become a fan.  Bloom sealed it.

I imagine an alternate timeline in which Beach House drops a proper Lazy Eye-esque, indie movie inspired video for Walk.  I would've been a massive fan right away, and Beach House would've been a household name. What a shame

Lana swooped in and stole their crown.  Now, I use the name Lana as a bridge to normies who otherwise wouldn't get my taste in music.  (I don't dance and party to music, I lounge, loaf, and just listen - or try to, at least).

sigh...

If you lasted this long, congratulations fuckface. you aren't basic and your IQ is above room temp.

I put the question to you, nerds.  Do any of y'all actually like those Teen Dream videos?  y'all glad that Beach House torpedoed their own rise to rock stardom with that "art hipster" nonsense?  Think it was calculated to win indie cred and remain critical darlings instead of household names?  If so, they sure as hell succeeded.

Or, Could it be that Alex and Victoria didn't have the presence of mind to understand that they had a potential goldmine in a Lazy Eye-esque video for Walk? Maybe they're superficial, shitty scholars of their own work and their hipster guardedness routine is actually just cluelessness? Fuck me

Oh, and lets all appreciate Silversun Pickups' masterpiece again. It's been too long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYd57rkvnpQ

hey, y'all.  was just listening to this song form Devotion "All The Years" and thinking how it shows a worldview that's alien to the 21st century relationship zeitgeist (ya know, hookups and situationships, apps and texting, all that nonsense)

I know a lot of folks don't like dating dynamics in 2026 but we put up with it because of collective action problem in economics where one person's choice is a drop in the bucket so we all kinda default to the mainstream lol

Having said that, looking at All the Years from this critical, cultural, historicl-political-socio cultural context lens, I thought the sub might appreciate it.  Cuz All The Years shows a worldview of honor and devotion that a lot of people are hungry for.  Anywhoooo, here's my analysis —

All The Years is about a rustic maiden from Maryland 19th century

Ya, I know this is a stretch.  Just trust me guys.  you’ll see where I’m going with this.  First verse

“I was sitting on a rock
Just waiting for a key
To sleep inside the house
Of old serenity”

She’s a rural youth “sitting on a rock,” daydreaming about all the years to come and her future married life.  For her, marriage isn’t an addition to a completed modern life, it’s scaffolding for farm life. Next verse (2008, Devotion) —

“So I climbed onto your altar
Begged, please don't let me falter
We'll put our oaths at stake
In a Heaven that all icicles make”

The air she breathes is thick with tradition, religion, prescribed duty, and unchosen obligation. Her words - “altar,” “oaths,” “Heaven” - All religious.  “Begged,” “please” - Prayer. “Falter” - Sin.

The chorus —

“All my devotion
Compelled by an ocean
Of all the years to come (repeated four times - citation)”

Scour the dictionary for words and metaphors which capture a traditional-religious worldview better than these. I assure you, you won’t find any.

First, “All my devotion.”  There is no stronger word in the English language than "devotion" for the unwavering, unyielding choice to bind oneself, come what may. We say “commitment,” a sterile legal, contractual word. Devotion is what’s called for when the parties enter a covenant, becoming partners for the whole of life.  It’s soaked in religion and solemnity.

“ALL” - a totalizing word, nothing held back, nothing held in reserve. Only work and sweat, hearth and home.  Sun and soil. And the little known, little appreciated light of farm life.

NEXGT, “Compelled by an Ocean.”  She’s compelled by something outside herself, namely, the vast ocean. The ocean is a metaphor for realities which dwarf us, like Isaac Newton contemplating existence beachside.

Outer space is another oft-used image for the cosmic and the incomprehensible.  But space, though vast, is weightless, pretty, ethereal.  The ocean, on the other hand, is as terrestrial and heavy as space is weightless, just like the traditions and obligations our rural 19th century maiden swims in.

NEXT, “Of all the Years to come.”  She isn’t looking back on a relationship that shouldn’t have worked but somehow did, like Paramore’s “I’m Still Into You” (Williams 2013, luv that song btw). Instead, she's looking to all the years to come and making the choice to bind herself for that future.  No matter what.

“YEARS” - another totalizing word - the maiden and her husband-to-be are in it for the long haul, not days, weeks, or even months. 

And in rural life, each new year unfolds in pretty much the same manner as the last.

Which brings me toooo —

“So we'll work until the night is quite
What once all our dreams were like
Doing all the housework
Returning all the schoolbooks
For good”

I know what your thinking.  Boring life, right?  Where’s the excitement? Lets think it thru, tho

Ironically “housework and schoolbooks” lead back to the dreams and bliss of youth in roundabout fashion (citation - "we'll work until the night is quite what once all our dreams were like").  This young couple chooses the long, hard road of enduring marital happiness over the “burn fast, flame out” Romeo and Juliet-style fling that fails to satisfy

AND

“Let's go on pretending
That the light is never ending
So we still have the summers
Let's be good to one another, hey”

"Fake it ‘till you make it” as we’d say in 2026.  That is - You're not going to feel love every moment but you have to act as if you do "So we still have the summers."  (Legrand, 2008). This totally rejects you,re contemporary notion that something is wrong in a relationship just because you aren’t constantly on cloud 9.

“Let’s be good to one another, hey” - the meaning of “be good” in this context completely subverts what you find in Weezer’s “El Scorcho” where Rivers sings —

“I’m a lot like you / So please / Hello / I’m here / I’m waiting / I think I’d be good for you / And you’d be good for me.” (Pinkerton)

Here, “be good” refers to a list of likes and dislikes or personality traits.  Rivers is saying “we’d be a good match” in the sense of passive suitability.  In “All The Years,” contrariwise, “be good” refers to an active choice.  This is a traditional view because it rests marital success not on matching personalities (hey, we both like Beach House), but on an active choice to be good to one another.

The Sound of “All The Years”

Just a final note on the band’s playing and singing on this track

First, Victoria’s vocal in the chorus (“AAAAAHHHLLL MAAHHHHH DEEEEVOOOOOOOSHUHN”) deserves mentions.  In order to create that “AHH” vowel you have to open your oral cavity wide and drop your jaw (like when doctor tells you to open and say “ahhhhh”).  This creates an open-mouthed, childlike facial expression of utter defenselessness (babies do it).  It’s so earnest, sincere, and innocent it makes me cry. Lol

Second, because of the slow tempo, Victoria extends the vowels on “All my devotion / compelled by an ocean.” Kids tend to extend their vowels when they’re excited to see family after time apart ("Daaaaadeeeee!!!!" "Mooooomeeeee!!!!!").  They rush final vowels before consonants that completes words because they’re out of breath.  This is exactly what Victoria does when she sings the words “devotion” and “ocean.” citation-LINK

Vocal bonus point!!!! - Children don’t often feel the weight of their parents' authority. Similarly, the rustic maiden of “All The Years” doesn’t feel the weight of “the ocean” of solemn obligation because she’s been formed for it her whole life. She can’t conceive of any other life than that prescribed by tradition, and so the burdens of domesticity are, for her, less straight-jacket and more tailored dress.

Third, Alex’s guitar and the church organ keyboards.  The guitar tone Alex uses is just as saturated as the balmy air of rural Maryland in summer. In a border state on the Mason-Dixon Line like Maryland, you can be sober and still see double because the air itself is drunk with water vapor.

Southern Summers are just as heavy as the ocean of tradition that weighs our rural maiden down (though she doesn’t feel the weight).

It’s also worth noting how Alex’s slide guitar differs from Mazzy Star’s.  The slide guitar in “Fade Into You” reads as West Coast free and easy.  Dry and arid.  Alex's slide guitar on “All The Years" reads as heat mirage and slow-mo, as if the heat and humidity distort the tempo of the wilting riff that opens the song.

Anywhooooo—

Srry for mispells BTW, I typed this out on at lunch on between class (Honors American studies 200 critical analysis paper due in 10 lol)

This stream a’ consciousness was inspired by devotion to our fathers and to theirs'...

…ahem…

Listin’…

Beach House ain’t no Cocteau Twins…

Cocteau Twins - They’s Romantic opera
Beach House ain’t that old opera house world

They ain’t no Mazzy Cali neither
18th Maryland Houses, not 19th California Mansions

East Coast old world. A lazy, hazy summer of hammocks and cocktails

Southern Summer is oppressive and heavy, just like Antebellum slavery
The chains Grant’s men didn’t break were sweetened by the blues
Alex and Victoria do us the honor now
My body’s enchained; my spirit flows free
Summertime and the livin’ is easy…

No Sober Country twang, Southern Drunken slang - the dual consequence of the liquor and the heat

Sink into comfort provided by the hammock and the drink. An opiate that rolls like molasses

Hushed cannons give way to Maryland rustic and Myrtle Beach houses

Hear me out, guys…

…

I think.  I ruminate.  I analyze.  I can’t help myself - It’s how I’m wired.  So naturally, my all time favorite pastime is the contemplative walk.

The walk suits me. It helps me decompress, process, sort the mental mess.  It fueled some of my best hunches, my best insights, and my best impulses.

Naturally - “Walk in the Park” is the tune that hooked me on Beach House. Its andante pace and plodding groove sound like the walk itself - It’s program music for the thoughtful walk.

What prompted Victoria’s walk?

Sigh..

post break-up ennui…

You go for a walk in the park
'Cause you don't need anything
The hand that you sometimes hold
Doesn't do anything
The face that you see in the door
Isn't standing there anymore

“He’s gone,” Victoria thinks to herself, “but his memory, his ghostly residue, lingers on.  I thought I was over him.  Guess I’m not, really..”

Victoria’s mostly over him, but not entirely..

She's over him enough that he doesn't live constantly in her head, but not enough that her thoughts don’t sometimes drift in his direction.  If they do, she considers that his company is now forever beyond her reach.

She thinks, “I’ll go for a walk.  By myself.”

And that’s fine…

…

In a matter of time
It would slip from my mind
In and out of my life
You would slip from my mind
In a matter of time

“Just give it some time,” Victoria convinces herself, “and he’ll be gone - completely - even as a ghost of a memory.”

The music swells - The reassuring thought cheers her up a bit.

“Time will heal.” 

This is melancholy of the finite sadness, not an emo screaming bedroom crisis.

…

The face that you saw in the door
Isn't looking at you anymore
The name that you call in its place
Isn't waiting for your embrace
The world that you love to behold
Cannot hold you anymore

…

“Walk in the Park” is an internal conversation between two Victorias.

This is the key that unlocks the drama of this introspective masterpiece.

The narrator in the verses is “rational Victoria” - the higher-order, detached, observer Victoria, hovering over and psychoanalyzing "you."

"You" in the verses is "hurt Victoria" - the Victoria who’s dealing with post-breakup doubt, asking questions like, “Could we have made us work?” “What did it all mean?” “What did he mean when he told me we’re through?” "What could I have said to keep him?" "Was there another girl?" "Was it me?"

...

"Did I fail him?"

...

On the walk, the two Victorias conduct a mental courtroom debate, litigating these questions.  Prosecution versus defense.  Back and forth - They evaluate shreds of evidence left behind by the ghost of what he said, of what he did, of what it might have meant.  Of what could have been...

The result of these deliberations is sung by “hurt Victoria” in the chorus - 

In a matter of time
It would slip from my mind
In and out of my life
You would slip from my mind
In a matter of time

Here, “You” is the guy she’s trying to get over.  She hopes she will.  She believes she will, given enough time.  It’s not a crisis.  She’s coping.  She can live with this verdict..

…

The Walk With No Destination

These mental reassurances are never final. 

Each verdict begets another appeal followed by another round of litigation.  It’s in the nature of ruminating.  We doubt - It’s what we do.  The more we chase reassurance with FACTS, DATA, and LOGIC, the further away from us it gets.

This is the trap of the solipsistic walk.

More, you want more
More, you want more
More, you want more, you tell me
More, only time can run me

"Rational Victoria” returns in the outro, noting that "hurt Victoria” wants more.

More of what?  More answers. More reassurance.  More certainty that it’s not her fault and that there was nothing she could have done, and that the spell of ennui will soon be broken.

“When will I emerge from this funk?  From this hibernation?  From this preoccupation?” asks hurt Victoria.

“Only time can run me,” responds rational Victoria.  That is - The data is in the future which sadly doesn’t exist yet.

Now, where we would normally expect a conclusion or a fade-out, the music starts to bubble and fizz, symbolizing Victoria's renewed mental turbulence in the moments after the hard-won, but brief reassurance owing to her solipsistic debate.

…

No answers, just more walking.  And more mental talking…

“Time” Doesn’t Actually Heal

No one ever broke the spell by counting the hours.

Healing requires many new things, new ways, and new people. And this takes many new sunrises.

Time doesn't heal. Healing takes a long time.

He’ll never completely “slip from her mind.” We never go back to the person we were. That’s not how healing works. Healing gives us a new perspective on those disquieting post-breakup doubts.

Time doesn't change us. We change over time...

And not necessarily for the worse.

I know all of us dream pop drones have our pet theories about our beloved Beach House.  All of us think “I’m the one who gets it.”

If y’all are thinking PPP means “piss poor planning” then y’all are wrong.  Trust me, guys.  TRUST ME

Guys listen.  I took piano.  I practiced Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

EVIDENCE - Debussy writes three p’s - literally “ppp” - as dynamic markings for the softest touch possible on the piano.  This is a French music thing, guys.  Satie, Ravel, Faure, the list goes on. Trust me, I took music history in undergrad.

MORE EVIDENCE - Victoria was born in Paris and she’s related to the French composer Michel Legrand.  Wikipedia says she studied theater in France.  LET THAT SINK IN

Victoria and Alex are low-key channeling Claude Debussy in “PPP,” guys.

Hear me out.

France and Beach House’s “PPP”

There’s something ineffable about France.  About the City of Lights.  Old world taste, refinement, and high culture at its peak is found there.  We all dream about going to Paris.

I think the same ethos underlies dream pop.  I mean, the band name of one of our founders, Cocteau Twins, is literally French.

What is this ethos?  I think it can be summed up by the French expression, “C’est la vie!”

Such is life.

This sentiment is the key to understanding Beach House’s “PPP.”

“PPP” - the story and the feels

“PPP” is an aspirational love song which idealizes the early, perfect, frictionless part of the relationship.  It’s about the infatuation stage in which the lovers are mutually entranced, finishing each other’s sentences, blissfully blind to each other’s flaws and tics.

In the breathy, spoken word intro, Victoria puts us “out in the Heartland” and asks “Are you ready?  Ready for this life?”

What follows is a masterful narrative on the bliss of infatuation.

“Did you see it coming? / It happened so fast / Timing was perfect / Water on glass”

Victoria gives us pitch perfect metaphors for this stage of the relationship.  “Water,” “glass,” and…

The absolute chef’s kiss of metaphors.  Two words that perfectly encapsulate infatuation… 

ice skating -

“Like tracing figure eights on ice in skates / Oh well / And if this ice should break it would be my mistake”

Ice skating is elegant, beautiful, virtually frictionless, like the early stage of a relationship.

Also like the early stage of a relationship, ice skating is fragile.  Without the maturity of years, the relationship is on thin ice.  The skaters fall, break the ice. The spell is lifted.  Now, they see each other’s flaws.

The next spoken word section sows doubt in our minds -

“Between the cities / between the thrills / there’s something inside you / that doesn’t sleep well”

Something doesn’t sleep well out in the Heartland, Victoria tells us, which prepares the French ambivalence, the shrugging nonchalance of “C’est la vie!”

“It won’t last forever / but maybe it will / white clothes they gave you / you wear them so well”

Here we see the French ambivalence about the question - “Will this last forever?” In lieu of an answer, Victoria gives us a saying she once heard -

“Someone once told me / in love that you must / place all you’re given / in infinite trust”

This thesis isn’t elaborated.  We don’t hear arguments, counterarguments, or corollaries or any such thing.

Instead, Victoria gives us this -

“Yet I’m tracing figure eights on ice in skates / So well / And if this ice should break it would be my mistake”

There’s a subtle shift in the lyrics here.  Earlier Victoria sings a simile - “Like tracing figure eights on ice in skates.”

Here, the poetic likening of ice skating to those early relationship feels is replaced with literal ice skating - Like tracing figure eights becomes Yet I’m tracing figure eights.  This subtle switch places us in the present moment and prepares us for the climax of the song - the long outro.

The “PPP” outro

Any possible elaboration or counterargument to the thesis is shrugged off and replaced with an outro of pure musical depiction, in which the listener is treated to Victoria’s lover's sigh and Alex Scally’s absolutely gorgeous - No - spellbinding - guitar work.

There are no words.

The dream pop palette and French Impressionism

Why do we call our music “dream pop?”  There never was a local scene that identified itself with that tag, unlike the shoegaze “scene that celebrates itself.”  I think it’s because of the nature of dreams.  Dreams are all middle.  They don’t begin with a thesis followed by elaboration and conclusion.  Dreams just are.

Dreams are clouds.  Like dreams, clouds appear to us fully formed. They’re gone before we realize it.

French Impressionism doesn’t tell the absolute truth of its subject matter, just how it appears in the present moment.  Monet painted several haystacks because there is no absolute “the haystack” to paint.

Like French art, Beach House’s work is gorgeous. It’s Lace-like ephemerality.  It’s all dreams and clouds.

Will this love last?

Victoria doesn’t answer, she skates.  She surrenders to the infinite present of the figure 8.

C’est la Vie

PPP

Note from the OP.  Hello darkwave fans!  I’m an amateur, new-to-reddit music essayist who loves Drab Majesty.

My journey with Drab goes back to 2023 when they opened for Slowdive. I attended their Chicago show with a friend of mine who happened to be getting into Drab at the time.

For several years prior I had been a fan of Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, slowly collecting their music on vinyl.  The 2023 Slowdive show was my first exposure to Drab Majesty.  In retrospect I think to myself,

“Holy shit!  Where have I been all these years!?”

After that show I fell in love with them and the rest has been history.

I wanted to share my love for Drab Majesty with darkwave-heads with this essay that I wrote recently.  It’s a breakdown of my favorite Drab song - “Cold Souls” - which interprets the lyrics and the sonics, and looks at deep aesthetic traditions that might be informing Deb Demure’s art.

I hope all you darkwavers enjoy reading this piece as much as I enjoyed writing it!

The Eternal Maiden + Cathedrals in Sound: Analysis of Drab Majesty’s “Cold Souls” from The Demonstration

(links with timestamps included)

The “sonic cathedral in sound” associated with Cocteau Twins gets mocked because it’s easy to do and hard to do well.  When it’s done poorly it can impress normies while the critics roll their eyes. 

In this post I interpret an example of a sonic cathedral - Drab Majesty’s “Cold Souls.”  Read, listen, and you’ll see. Lead singer Deb Demure is no slouch artistically, and “Cold Souls” is a masterpiece.

The Eternal Maiden - lyrics and vocals

Lyrically, “Cold Souls” is a love song with a tragic arc.

In the beginning she wins his heart with “her song” “at dawn” which is “on his mind.”  In the middle, he wonders whether she’s real at all because she’s world weary (“dead and numb”) and maybe “just a dreamer.”  At the end she becomes “all light” and dies (departs). “When you were dead / I took you by your head” is the point. 

This image comes from a classic female archetype in Western art and literature - the Maiden who dies at the prime of life and whose beauty is thus made Eternal.

Vocally, Deb intones like a monk ritually “demonstrating” (see The Demonstration album cover art) - nearly devoid of affect, emotion, or bluesy wailing.  Contrast Deb’s vocal delivery on “Cold Souls” with Pearl Jam’s “Last Kiss”, for example, in which Eddie Vedder also sings about the death of a love interest, but Vedder’s delivery is filled with bluesy angst, wailing, and grief (1.00).

With his art school background, Deb Demure would know literary archetypes such as the maiden who dies young and becomes eternal (for example - Shakespeare characters, medieval Catholic saints and martyrs, and Marian imagery).

In this idiom, the maiden dies and her male adorer loses her in the flesh as she becomes "all light." However, as she departs to be joined to the only suitor worthy of her (God) he basks in her radiance, transforming his grief into religious awe - hence the “cathedral in sound” which I turn to next.

The Cathedral in Sound - instrumentals

Sonically, “Cold Souls” is the 4AD style cathedral in sound united to Drab Majesty’s austere, marble-like overall aesthetic, which supports the story of the lyrics and the religious atmosphere. 

The echo/reverb drenched instruments suggest the vastness of the cathedral interior.  

The opening guitar melody uses groups of three notes (0.00) which hint at prayer (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) and serve as a liturgical frame for the story in the verses.

The metronomic and repetitive synth drums suggest geometric cathedral architecture (as opposed to jazz, blues, hip hop, and prog rhythm which is more liquid and displaced). 

Synthesizers in the elegiac verses (1.56) suggest the dim light inside a cathedral created when the sun's rays penetrate stained glass. 

After she becomes “all light," the synthesizer choir comes in and the opening instrumental melody changes, ascending slightly, heralding her ascent to Heaven as Deb repeats “When you were dead / I took you by your head.”

Conclusion

“Cold Souls” is a masterpiece.  Deb Demure and Mona D are the darkwave artists for the 21st century!

Now enter the Cathedral.