Deep Voices: The Best Music of September
18 literal songs
When I read The Metamorphosis in high school, it did not occur to me until class discussion that maybe Gregor Samsa wasn’t actually a bug. Why wouldn’t he be a bug? Franz Kafka said he was.
I recently finished reading a book I really loved, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland, wherein the main character, Adina, is an alien. The moment she’s born, in the Philadelphia area in the late 1970s, it’s revealed that she was actually sent from a faraway planet to report back to her superiors about the habits of the people of Earth, which she eventually does via fax machine. It’s a beautiful story, one in which the truth of her planet of origin is eventually questioned by the masses.
Perhaps this whole set up is a metaphor. Perhaps not. Perhaps it doesn’t matter. But it does to me. I’m a very literal person. So I chose to believe that Adina was an alien, because I wanted to believe her. It felt like the more generous impulse.
Or is it the more naive one? I mention this because I’ve been on high alert for metaphorical behavior so as to not get played and my spidey sense went off when listening to Wendy Eisenberg’s song “Lasik,” which opens this month’s Best Songs playlist. In it, Eisengerg sings about having Lasik eye surgery and how it did and did not expand her vision. Clearer sight is a powerful idea. Did she not mean this literally? “Couple weeks went by/I can see without help/But most days it’s like everything is slightly blurry/Especially the distances/My doctor warned me healing could be like this.” I was so into it, but then I got suspicious. Wait, I asked myself as I listened, is this real? A trumpet blooped along, mocking me.
Then, later in the song, as if she’d been snooping inside my head, she answered: “If this wasn’t true/It would be the most heavy handed metaphor/But yes, I changed my eyesight and yes, my eyes are blurry/I am surprised that healing takes forever.” An explanation and an apology. It made me laugh At myself and at Eisenberg, two uncomfortable lovers of metaphor. I imagined her writing the song, getting through most of it, then adding a verse because she felt like she had to add a disclaimer for bozos like me. I appreciated it.
A lot to love in that song, and elsewhere this month. Too much music! This monthly wrapup playlist is longer than the strict 60 minute max I keep most Deep Voices to because I tried to cutt more songs and I couldn’t do it. Can you really know what’s going on with new music without Farida Amadou’s 12 minute track of solo electric bass? Absolutely not. So I will ask you, as honestly as I can, to trust me.
Everything from here on down, including my 18-song, one hour and 42 minute playlist, is behind a paywall. Each month I send a wrapup of the best music of the month exclusively for paying supporters of Deep Voices. A subscription costs a dollar and change per edition. Who even cares about change? I swear that is not a metaphor.