The electronic diminuendo at the start of this track might be the “game over” noise that an entire generation of Super Nintendo junkies came to associate with a feeling of not trivial disappointment. One minute your character is gaining points and, the next, a machine is asking you to insert coins. At least in real life, mortality usually gives better warning.
Speaking of leaving adolescence and the fear of aging that tends to come with: Bear In Heaven‘s “Lovesick Teenagers.” This theme (in simpler times called “growing up”) has always served as a muse for artists. And – is it just me? – it seems to have become especially pervasive in recent indie music (MGMT’s Oracular Spectatcular, pretty much everything Animal Collective has ever done …)
In any case, Bear in Heaven do it well. Their November release, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, sounds like what I hoped MGMT’s sophomore effort would be. That’s being generous toward the Management.
Lovesick Teenagers is a damn-well produced song. After the initial plunge, lead singer Jon Philpot’s emotionally-wrecked voice drags you mercilessly along. When he suggests that you “just embrace it, your destination” you’re gonna shiver. The song is about getting older and still feeling the emotional pangs that you did as a lovesick teenager. Whether this is for better or for worse, a briefly ecstatic chorus leaves you to decide.
Listen to “Lovesick Teenagers” here, courtesy of IODA!
Bear In Heaven
“Lovesick Teenagers” (mp3)
from “Beast Rest Forth Mouth”
(Hometapes)
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at iTunes Music Store
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