By: Julia Ristoska

When you first listen to “No one’s Sleeping” on Deerhunter’s newly released album Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? it is quite easy to feel like you are being drowned in sound. The lyrics take back stage and are buried deep in between guitar strums and drum attacks. If you just focus on the lyrics you would assume that this is quite the simple song. The lines are short and consist of only two verses and instrumental breaks that repeat throughout the four minutes.

However, you know with any minimalist painting, there is always something deeper beyond the horizontal black line on a canvas. This song like a work of art has a deep history and meaning behind the external make-up. Lead singer Bradford Cox told Uncut that “No One’s Sleeping” pertains to be about the murder in the UK of Labour MP Jo Cox. The politician was killed by Thomas Mair, a mentally ill man associated with far-right organizations.”

This is far from just the simple song, and it is surprising to discover that it has such a heavy political undertone. Especially since the lyrics are written and structured in a form of a nursery rhyme. There is no doubt that this violent act definitely impacted the band, and their own emotions were expressed in the song. This incident allowed for a reflection on our society, and all its madness as Bradford Cox told Uncut,“It’s a representative of the ills of our culture. It’s representative of that mania, of nationalism. It’s madness that this person died so violently, a person with a family, with friendships…”

Although, the song touches upon a very serious topic, it actually began sounding very upbeat and the smooth vocals were enough to put you to sleep. That was until distorted guitars terrorized the calmness. The blast of random and cluttered layers of sound actually has a greater purpose. It shows how the murder of Jo Cox was done without any good reason. The distorted sounds were placed to express that the death was in indeed meaningless and the act was destructive. There really is no good reason to explain why such a traumatic event occurred. The song itself also can’t explain why, and in a way it resembles a mania episode. Its abnormally upbeat, reaches a peak of high euphoria, and crashes with bad decisions. Yet, overall Deerhunter does a great job in creating a complex and unified piece despite the madness.

By Julia Ristoska

Have you ever watched a horror film and knew something was about to happen as the background music gradually gets louder? You see the protagonist stop, and with wide eyes stare into space waiting for something to pop out from the blue. In a sense, you feel like they are almost waiting for the worst to happen, so they can release the anxiety and paranoia they hold inside their minds. When I first heard “Sour Times” by Portishead I immediately pictured myself as the protagonist in a horror film, or a even better term would be sci-fi horror. The floating ring of the synthesizer jumped out at unexpected times and continuously haunts the whole song.

“Sour Times” starts out with a heavy thump of the bass guitar in which mimics the sounds of footsteps or a pounding heart. However, the bright sound of the synthesizer that was swirling on top of the melancholic foundation created a whole different feel to the song. Somehow, It gives a vibrant burst of energy and complements the dark-like aura.

When the last deep bass drop ended to signal the start of vocals, I expected there would be screaming. In contrast, the lead singer, Beth Gibbons voice was soft and steady. Yet, she has a vocal range that allowed for effortless transitions from low to high notes. This was best captured when she sang the chorus. Her voice smoothly grew louder near the end of the emotional lyric “….‘Cause nobody loves me” and transitioned to a low whisper when she sang “…not like you do.” Her vocal technique is simple but creepily alluring to the ears of listeners, and makes you want to listen until the end. Interestingly enough the ending left me with a good cliffhanger. The synths cried with a “waah wahh wahhh” followed by a drum solo and the only thing needed was a “to be continued” sign