One can sum up Vancouver-based THE ORGAN in one sentence: they sound exactly like The Cure, Katie Sketch (vocals) sounds exactly like Morrissey, when they perform they strike poses a bit like Joy Division, and the only difference is that they are all (boyish looking) girls.
Granted, they do it bloody well. There is no doubt that they have managed to write a beautiful and haunting album. Sketch's voice is emotive and powerful, the songs are easy to listen to - in fact hearing the album instills a certain feeling of cool aloofness, simply due to it's very nature. And in terms of musical style, they are about as authentic sounding as you're going to get.
However, the cynic in me can't help but point out the massive difference in roots between The Organ and the bands they emulate, which rapidly becomes apparent in the lyrics, and renders their efforts nothing short of beautiful noise, with no real insight or depth.
Think about it - influential bands such as The Smiths came from industrial Northern cities, in the 1980s during the throws of Thatcherism.
Mass unemplyment, the dole queue, boredom, and dissolusionment drove the music of these bands. By and large you were either a yuppie working in some investment bank, down South embracing the new corporate ethos whilst listening to Duran Duran - or you were living somewhere like Salford, with no real future and nothing to look forward to except the day you signed on and the prospect of the weekend. On the whole, the music spoke to the working class of Britain for these very reasons, and in retrospect it was pretty much fuelled by the state of the nation.
Arguably, the self-deprecating nature of this style of music could also be derived from the lack of self-esteem associated with unemployment and being completely skint (given that as the artists have got older and richer, their songs ceased to be quite as cutting). But I'll save the pop psychology for another time.
|
In contrast, The Organ sing about topics covered in most State-Side College Rock bands who typically appear on the OC - "We should go down to the Mall/ Look at people, judge them all" [Basement Band Song] - the very fact that they mention the word 'Mall' as opposed to "run down Arndale Centre" speaks volumes. They sing of typical relationship problems, that sort of thing. But wait, they're still at college! OK, well we can forgive them a lot in that case.
By no means are The Organ substandard, they are obviously a very good band and the album is great - it's just that in comparison to their predecessors, it feels a little hollow. This is in no way the fault of the band, but perhaps they have come at a time where, in the UK at least, the names of bands are fired out so rapidly that people hear the names before the actual music - such is the frenzied desperation of the industry to quickly rehash every musical trend in history for the sake of a quick buck.
Last week, eyebrows were raised a mile high when popularist Tory MP David Cameron excalimed he was a fan of The Smiths. By the same token, its hard to decide whether re-hashing the new-wave sound, minus the original vitriol, for the careerist purpose of squeezing cash out of another NME-ite band and their fans, is perhaps something along the same lines?
|
