On a day when the insufferably mannered second Black Midi album was released to an expectant, waiting world, it was a delight to have this delightfully stripped down and honest statement to act as some kind of counterpoint. A collaboration between Ellen Kempener's Palehound and Melina Duterte's Jay Som Bachelor's Doomin' Sun, it's a timely re-aquaintance with the real.
In many ways it was The Moldy Peaches who established this particular mindset and sensibility twenty years back. Who'd have known they would become such an important band. But really it goes back even beyond that. To the songs Mo Tucker sang for the Velvet Underground. To The Fugs and The Beats. To Holden Caulfield.
It's a certain cusp of adulthood ennui that Jonathan Richman understood perfectly too and Bachelor do most awfully well here. A way of thinking that singing in tune really doesn't matter nor does playing correctly or flashily. What is important is to capture the essence and as Holden knew, to reject the phoney.
Nothing on here departs from this basic template. Ten contenders for the OST of Juno 2, for when that particular couple get round to having kids of their own. Doomin' Sun is a restatement of the basic truth that the adolescent mind is onto something, despite its occasional preciousness, perhaps precisely because of it. It's a small joy. Say no to Black Midi's Cavalcade and yes to this instead.
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