Remember when music still had something to say? Or, more specifically, when artists still felt compelled to write something meaningful about the world around them. Not all music needs to be that of protest, but even the most joyous and throwaway pop song can still contain social commentary if it so chooses. Not that Dismal Science Fair the new one from Laslow Simplex could be described as throwaway or pop, but it is joyous in its own jaunty, lilting, and lovely way. But there is much more besides.
And, just as my first encounter with this DIY music maker via the single “Straw Men” demonstrated that he is a deft and slightly subversive, satirical, and ironic writer of songs, he really gets to stretch his musical legs over an entire album. If that song was a warning about the motives and abilities of the people we vote into power, here, he has the space to explore politics, and economic concerns beyond American borders, plus universal themes such as public health concerns and culture wars, as well as more way-out topics such as the rise of pseudoscience, conspiracy theory, and outright lies.
“Flat Earth Astronaut” brilliantly sums up this last issue. It is a measured and gently melodic, spacious and melancholic piece full of wit and wisdom, a reminder that, in the event of one man’s tragic demise in a homemade rocket mission to prove that the earth was indeed flat, “backyard physics might take you away, but gravity always wins.”
And given the album’s overall, slightly nostalgic, consciousness-raising, awareness gathering, Guthrie-esque vibe…ones that are, perhaps, more Arlo than Woody in delivery…, its raggle-taggle folk blues storytelling, it is also a reminder that we have been using song to speak truth to power since the sixties…and back through all eras of history – the Civil War…American and English… medieval marching songs, peasant plow tunes, and probably even as far back as disillusioned and disenfranchised Hittites three and a half thousand years ago…probably. We, the people, have always needed a voice; the reasons to be heard may change, but the fact remains.
Subjects such as divisions of wealth, social divides, food, family, and famine have always been the subject of such an outcry, but with songs such as “Talking Replication Crisis Blues” about the unchecked repetition of scientific data and the more general “Ok Boomer’s” perhaps a reply to the blanket idea that all of an older generation are necessarily out of touch with the world, Simplex reminds us that dialogue, on issues both cutting edge and timeless is always important.
Laslow Simplex is a man of words, some witty, some wise, some profound, some pointed, all eloquent and excellent; he is observational and astute; he gives you something to think about and something, often someone, to laugh at. And of course, if you can’t laugh at these subjects, they are going to pull you under with them, so laugh, giggle, snort, and snigger…we’ve tried everything else!
Dismal Science Fair might not seem that important musically, but it sure as hell is a vital piece through its messages. Such is the entrenchment of political ideas that no one listens to any media or news broadcasts, private opinion or public commentary, podcast or pundit, that goes against what they already believe in, so maybe music is our last hope. Maybe through a trojan horse process, such ideas can be smuggled through the gates of the city of convention to burst forth and raze the status quo to the ground.
Wouldn’t that be something?
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