Week of 9/22: Yves Tumor, Makthaverskan, Boreen, Taylor Swift
Eric gushes over a recent Yves Tumor song, Eli shows up late to the Makthaverskan party, Michael plugs an underrated Portland artist, and Miranda feels unsatisfied with Taylor's latest re-recording.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him), Eric Bennett (they/them), Michael Brooks (he/him) and Miranda Reinert (she/her). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. On Substack, we’re also a weekly roundup of songs. Our format is simple: each of our four hosts picks a song they love and writes about it. There will be one free post every week, and more at the end of every month for paid subscribers. For the sake of your wallet, don’t start a paid subscription on Substack. Instead, sign up at the 2$ tier or higher on Patreon and we will gift you a subscription.
Yves Tumor - “Jackie”
Eric Bennett:
Yves Tumor is one of those acts that started getting heaped with praise just before I started truly paying attention to them. I wasn’t paying attention when Safe in the Hands of Love received a 9.1 from Pitchfork, and so maybe I heard his name in passing but did not listen to his work. When he released Heaven to a Troubled Mind, I gave it some time, enjoyed it, but only took away from it the highs of “Kerosene!” and “Gospel For a New Century.” I could almost make out some of what everyone else must have already seen, and seen more of. This year, he has shared The Asymptotical World, a six-track EP kicked off by the best song I’ve heard from him yet.
While I haven’t been fully won over by the EP, I am head over heels in love with “Jackie,” its opener and lead single. “Jackie” is rife with the presence and hedonism of Prince while flanked with elements of goth rock. The guitars on this song are incredible and carve the track out of the otherwise very dense arrangement. It allows you something to hang on to while the noisy wave of the song’s chorus slams into you. It seems that Tumor is moving into some heavier sounds, and after hearing several people tell me his set at Pitchfork Fest was overwhelmingly loud, I can only hope that the next thing we hear from him takes the shape and energy I love so much in “Jackie” and pushes it further.
Makthaverskan - “Antabus”
Eli Enis:
It’s always cool to immediately fall in love with a band that’s been right under your nose for many years. Makthaverskan are a Swedish band who blend dream-pop and post-punk in a way that feels indelibly tied to the 80s without reeking of cheap nostalgia. They’ve been putting out albums on Run For Cover Records for over a decade, a fact I was genuinely bewildered to find out last week because I don’t have any memory of ever listening to this group despite following Run For Cover for just as long.
The band will release their fourth album later this fall, but after loving the lead single, “This Time,” I went back and started playing catch-up with their older records, and I was immediately struck by “Antabus,” the opening song on 2014’s II. Their new music is a lot softer, denser, and musically considered (and way more dream-pop than punk, for that matter), but “Antabus” is like a fiery punk song wrapped in the heartaching dreariness of vintage goth-rock and dream-pop. Its blunt force and purposefully underwritten hook (“I don’t know what to say, so fuck you / fuck you!”) almost feels like an inversion of the overly clever, ornate pathos of traditional goth and dream-pop — a thrashing, clawing, charmingly sloppy indie-pop song that could also soundtrack the darkest hour of a twee indie movie.
Boreen - “Giving Up”
Michael Brooks:
Book of Hours, the latest from Boreen, finds Portland songwriter Morgan O'Sullivan at their sharpest and most ambitious. Songs like the eight-minute closer “Fantasy Suite” fully embrace synthesizers, making for lush and sweeping passages of ambient bliss unlike anything we’ve heard from the project before. O'Sullivan shows off his capacity for crafting unforgettable melodies on both “Giving Up” and “We Don’t Stand a Chance,” the former being incessantly catchy and one of his best songs to date. Featuring Harrison Smith of Turtlenecked on drums, “Giving Up” is a genuine earworm filtered through the bedroom pop tendencies that make the music of Boreen so immediately satisfying. “Giving Up” is one of the finest songs I’ve heard all year, the kind of song that reminds you just how powerful a good melody can be.
Taylor Swift - “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)”
Miranda Reinert:
I understand why Taylor is re-recording her music. Ownership is important and the situation she’s in isn’t unique as more and more catalogues get sold off. I’ve talked at great length on different mediums about that. I’m a fan of Taylor Swift and have been for a very long time, but I guess I’d like to see some artistic value here alongside the business aspect.
This version of “Wildest Dreams” is just.. The same and doesn’t bring anything new. On 1989, her voice was pretty much fully formed and reflects what her music would become. Re-recording that album isn’t bringing much growth or difference, in my opinion. I understand doing Red better than I understand releasing “Wildest Dreams” randomly like this. If anything, this version sounds more sterile than the original. The pulsing beat behind her voice in the first verse is less warm and hypnotic. There isn’t the same depth as on the original album. I get that you’re trying to make people just listen to this version instead so you don’t want it to be too different, but come on don’t make it worse.
I’m excited to hear her record her very old songs that don’t sound very good and have a very different, much younger version of her voice. I trust Speak Now and her self-titled will be made new and interesting just as I thought the Fearless re-records were valuable. But I’m just confused by this version of a song I generally really enjoy.