Vogueing In Valhalla

Selve “Strange Romance”

The lead singer of the Australian band Selve calls himself Loki Liddle, which immediately signals that 1) this is not a low-key sort of band (sorry!) and 2) their obvious ambition is spiked with a wry playfulness. I hear traces of a lot of different sleek and successful rock acts in their sound – Duran Duran, Franz Ferdinand, The 1975, Tame Impala, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, The Darkness, Spacehog, even a bit of King Gizzard in “woooooo!” mode on a couple songs – but there’s also a distinct character to what they’re doing, particularly in the way Liddle inhabits his louche and flirty persona. There’s a big implied wink in the way he sings his lyrics, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s signifying “I know I’m not quite the character I’m presenting, but it’s fun” or “I’m totally getting away with becoming this guy and it rocks.”

“Strange Romance” is the band’s slinkiest, funkiest song, and it’s a duet with bandmate Creation Saffigna (these names!!!). The lyrics find Liddle waking up in various glamorous European cities, but leaving a bit of ambiguity about how he turned up there – is he passing out on a tour bus, or just visiting in vivid dreams? As the song moves along, it’s much more the latter, particularly when he and Saffigna show up in heaven to smoke cigarettes and share an “apocalyptic kiss.”

Buy it from Amazon.

Halloween “Crown”

Halloween making a point of explaining on Bandcamp that Shadow House is a “conceptual record about the compartmentalization of the sub-conscience.” This is helpful context, but I think it’s something you can easily intuit by the sound of it, and the lyrics that rise to the surface of the mix. “Crown” draws on a lineage of indie/art rock that’s meant to evoke the dream state, and its lyrics operate on dream logic, pulling together images from childhood and fantasy in a way that vaguely insinuates linear connections. As much as this song expects you to feel your way through it, the refrain that cuts through the mix gets to the point: “Everyone’s afraid of something.”

Buy it from Bandcamp.