Millennial: lovelytheband is one of the bands I want to see at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this year! I haven’t really listened to them much before, but they just released a new album, finding it hard to smile, so I was excited to see what they had to offer. The band’s songs cover topics that hit home for me, specifically the ones on depression and anxiety. I am very happy to find anyone that talks about mental health, whether it’s through television, art or, like lovelytheband, through music. As someone who is battling with depression and anxiety, it’s nice to see people fighting the stigma that surrounds the topic.
The indie pop band has a fun sound that contrasts with some of the lyrical content, which I actually really appreciate. When singing about mental illness, it can seem really dreary and what some people would call a “downer,” but this perfectly describes depression. Happy and fine on the outside but depressed in reality. My favorite songs on the album, “pity party” and “alone time,” fit this perfectly. My favorite lyric from the whole album is in the latter, “I don’t have to feel good, I just want to feel better.” lovelytheband truly shows the best representation of mental illness in their music than I have heard. They don’t make it sound like the “woe is me” or “the world is darkness” themes that I have heard before. They really show that it is normal and something that many people struggle with daily.
While I do commend lovelytheband for their talking about the stigma, the overall sound of their songs is nothing too memorable. They sound like many other indie pop songs, and to be honest, if it weren’t for them singing about mental health, I probably wouldn’t have been too interested in their music. They don’t stand out in the genre like bands like The 1975 have. finding it hard to smile is also a bit too long in my opinion. The songs in the second half of the album after the interlude, I can barely remember, and the album seems to drag on. There isn’t much else to say about this album for me. I like the lyrical content, but the actual sound of the band is nothing new.
While I am not super impressed, I am still excited to see them at ACL this year. I hope seeing them live will be fun and something a bit more memorable. I do hope that with more albums, lovelytheband makes even better music and continues to fight the stigma! Now, I know that this isn’t your type of music, Mom, so I am waiting for you to tear them a new one.
Mom: I’m not going to “tear them a new one,” but you’re right, this isn’t my music. It’s too poppy, overly produced and kind of generic. They sound like someone googled, “elements of indie pop hits,” then made music including every single item that came up.
But, like you, I commend lovelytheband on their subject matter. I saw them during South by Southwest, and lead singer Mitchy Collins was very upfront about his struggles with mental health. He says writing and performing songs about the topic is a form of therapy for him. He also wants to eliminate the stigma against going public with illnesses like depression.
When I saw them at SXSW, they put on an enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable set. The music was upbeat and danceable. Honestly, even though it wasn’t especially memorable, I enjoyed it more than I do finding it hard to smile. Their live show, lacking all the production embellishments on the album, sounded a little more fun and organic.
I do admit to finding their hit, “broken” extremely catchy and fun. I enjoy singing along to it, even though it reminds me of about a hundred other songs. However, even if I thought the rest of the album was great, the song “these are my friends” is bad enough to ruin the whole album for me. Remove the indie pop flourishes, and musically and lyrically (“These are my friends/ these are my friends/ I love them/ I love them”), the chorus could be a song from a TV show aimed at preschoolers. It has nothing to do with the music, but the dumb band name and the affectation of keeping all titles lower-case also really bug me. I don’t hate the album or the band (except for one truly awful song), but other than their attempts to reduce the stigma around mental illness, I can’t really recommend them either.
What We’re Listening To
Millennial: So, I am a huge nerd, and original soundtracks are some of my favorite things to listen to! One of my favorite animes right now is My Hero Academia (I HIGHLY suggest it!). It’s a show about a world filled with heroes and a majority of the world having powers. The music for the show fits it so well! It’s epic and intense, flowing from passionate to energetic to somber and all the way around again so easily between the scenes. The composer Yûki Hayashi is a genius, and his music in this show has brought me to literal tears, adding so much more to some of the most powerful scenes I have watched in anime. The first song to bring me to said tears, “You Can Become a Hero,” was in the first pivotal point in the show in just the second episode. It really set the tone of the show for me, and for many other people in the fandom.
Mom: The Beths are a four-piece band from Auckland, New Zealand, who just released their first full-length album, Future Me Hates Me. I can’t stop listening to it. The group combines ‘90s guitar-driven power pop with ‘60s harmonies. Lyrically, the album is humorous and deadly serious at the same time. For example, the title song is about making decisions the singer knows are bad, but she does it anyway, knowing she’ll hate herself later. The album is all about discontent with the world and one’s self, but it never becomes depressing. Singer Liz Stokes sings with both world-weariness and humor. The band members were all jazz majors at the University of Auckland, and their musicianship is clear. There’s not a throw-away song on the album, and I think I’ll continue to listen to it over and over. I’m pretty sure it will appear on my year-end top-ten list.
Mom and the Millennial 