The Louder I call, The Faster It Runs

Note: wrote this with the intention to send it Monday and never got the chance, so here it is in all it's bleary-eyed, written at midnight Sunday glory!

A friend's post on facebook a few days ago was soliciting reasons why her husband should not purchase a fanny pack. Beyond the obvious ridicule, the ease of being pick pocketed if left open, and the high tourist level, there were people that actually were in support of the purchase. You may all now sleep easier knowing I was not among those supporters.

I'm not exactly sure that fanny packs were ever "cool," but if they were it was a long time ago. They're just one thing in an ever growing list of things that are cool, fade away into uncool, and then get rediscovered by a new generation and become cool again. This makes me think of the current usage of the word "dope." It has certainly traveled this mainstream/obscurity/mainstream pattern.

Interestingly, a similar concept came up in conversation around the house concerning musical tastes, so I did a little reading. It's not super surprising, but it does give interesting insight to the album I've chosen for this week.

According to science, most people's musical tastes crystalize between the ages of 16-24. This is when you find the genres you like and dislike, and you start to settle in so to speak. Generally before 16 we basically only listen to whatever is the most mainstream at the time (the original fanny pack). As we age, we move further and further away from the mainstream (fanny packs aren't cool). We may pick favorite genres and we'll generally stick with those styles/themes as we grow older, though what we listen to in those styles will get more mature and more complex. But if those older tastes become mainstream again, listeners will often follow if there is sufficient complexity (new fanny packs).

Which kinda makes me the poster boy for this study. I ditched the mainstream sometime around age 10. When I was in high school it was a steady diet of Bay Area punk, metal, and grunge. I went to college and fell for indie rock and EDM. I my 20's it was lots of jazz, classical, and folk. By 30 I'd settled into a sort of alt-folk-emo sort of rut that from time to time I revel in. Even though I'm somewhat set in my listening ways, I'm still looking for new things with sufficient complexity, which led me to The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs by Wye Oak. 

For those that are new to the band, Wye Oak is a duo originally from Baltimore (they now live in NC and TX). The band is Jenn Wasner on guitars and vocals, and Andy Stack on drums and keyboards. The Louder I Call is their fifth studio album, and after listening to some of their back catalogue it's the first one where they let themselves be free. Past albums saw Wye Oak rely on the guitar/drums model much to heavily; now in 2018 there is a freedom in this record that makes is feel so much larger than anything they've done before - as if they have now embraced the current mainstream use of computers and technology to augment the complexity of their music.

I do feel like I need to come out and say directly that the title track is already on my short list for song of the year. It is this blooming sunshine track with a killer hook and a chorus that is a true earworm. Yet as the album plays on some of the steam from the start is lost. The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs isn't perfect by any stretch - when it's good it's really good, but when it's not it's meh. It's decidedly complex and mature and nods at the mainstream, which means I should really love it, and for the most part I do.

Recommended tracks: "The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs," "Symmetry," "It Was Not Natural," "Join," "Lifer"