But When They Do

Kate Bollinger “Dreams Don’t Come True”

“Dreams Don’t Come True” starts off with a strong late period Beatles vibe with that particular loose-yet-refined feel, but once her vocals kick in the music gets faster and more manic, as though someone accidentally pushed it from 33 1/3 to 45 on the turntable. The double time verses express a lot of desire and anxiety – Bollinger wants affection, but is overwhelmed by ordinary anxieties and prosaic obstacles. When the song snaps back into a more mellow vibe, her worries completely evaporate. “Dreams don’t come true like you think that they do,” she sings, “but when they do….oh, they do.” I love the emotional whiplash here, from daydreaming romantic to pragmatic pessimist to someone grounded in actual happiness.

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Yukimi featuring Dina Ögon “Vann du livet?”

Even with a Swedish title, the lyrics of “Vann du livet?” completely bypassed me at first; I was so locked into the vocal melody, guitar groove, and the aesthetics of the production that I just assumed it was heavily slurred, “cursive” English. I’m intrigued by what’s being said in Swedish, though – the title roughly translates to “do you win at life?,” which is a provocative question. I think if it was just “you win at life,” it’d be straightforward, but as a question being asked, it forces you into a philosophical corner. What would it mean to win at life? How do you make all of life a binary zero sum game? And even if you could look at it that way, wouldn’t life be more like a series of games with various outcomes? And what would it say about you if you said you won? And what would it say about you if you think you lost? Anyway, in a rather low-key way, I think this song actually feels a lot like pondering this question.

Buy it from Bandcamp.