I Am America (And So Can Dan!)
By Matt Jones
Dan Deacon is a pretty brilliant guy.
Setting aside the dude’s unparalleled electronic composition and production skills, Deacon is the voice behind “Drinking out of Cups” (NSFW/language), the most viral Long Island character bit satire to ever hit the internet (NOT a guy on acid in a closet as many have conjectured). He’s also the guy behind the Twitter handle @ebaynetflix, the guy behind 2009′s hypnotizing Bromst, the guy whose toungue-in-cheek cover of “Call Me Maybe” consists of the track layered 147 times on top of itself, and the guy behind one of the most fun, ridiculous music videos you will ever see:
America, Deacon’s latest album from whence the above single comes, sounds at some times like Japandroids fed through a dial-up modem and at others like a robot happily munching on the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s sometimes carefree, mostly in the first half, and sometimes pensive, mostly in the second half. There’s a story behind the bleeps, bloops, whizzes, whirrs, bangs, crashes, and electroseizures here: America blends classical music with electronic music in the same way that America represents a mashup of beauty and chaos so closely interwoven that it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. It reflects a maturation of sound and a sobered look at the complex beauty of our country.
Themes and lyrics repeat themself throughout in the same way America’s landscapes blend and shift from one coast to the other, and lyrics (though difficult to pick up behind the grandiose walls of sound) are imminently deep. Here are the lyrics America peaces out on (credit to tonsmorecowbell):
NOTHING LIVES LONG
ONLY THE EARTH AND THE MOUNTAINS
I SEE THE HILLSIDES
BURNING IN FLAMES
EVERYTHING’S GRAY
NOTHING REMAINS OF
PLACES I LOVED
NOTHING’S GREEN NOTHING GROWS
EVERYTHING BURNED
EVERYTHING WAS
LEAVE THE LIGHT ON FOR ME I’M COMING HOME
HELL IF I KNOW PLACES I SHOULDN’T ROAM
THINGS THAT I LOVE FADE OUT PAST MY VIEW
THE TIMES ARE RACING NOW I’M JUST GLAD I SPENT THEM WITH YOU
FEEL LIKE I’M ALL FLESH AND NO BONE
I’M NOT THE SHAPES THAT I’M SHOWN
HOPE I GET IT RIGHT TOMORROW.
America is one of the best electronic albums of the year, and its ability to be frank and introspective even as it delves into the motifs woven into such a massive country make it compelling.
Matt’s picks:
It’s silly to break out single tracks here.
