The pursuit of fame and status symbols is nothing new in human history, but social media has seriously upped the ante. Never before has the line between being considered a ‘someone’, and its opposite, been as harsh, uncertain, arbitrary and ultimately meaningless as it is today. Yet the effects of fame and status have also never had such a huge payoff, even to YouTube one-hit wonders. In a global economy, the promise of ‘access to everything’ is now viscerally and seductively within reach (even before the impact of Augmented Reality takes full effect).
The song develops from a daydream that almost all of us have had whilst working on the metaphorical ‘night shift’.
“I want a movie, where I’m the lead and you’re supporting me”
The average person sees thousands of movies in their lifetime. This has subconsciously made us connoisseurs of plot, genre, character development and other more sophisticated storytelling techniques. But this has had unintended consequences. In our real lives, even when we see a disaster developing or a tragedy unfolding, we choose to remain anchored to the imagined script we have developing in our heads, such that we would rather see the tragedy through to the end to confirm our storytelling instincts, than change the tragic ending for a better one. We prefer our protagonists reach the bottom of their narrative arc before they discover their hard-earned truth. We prefer life to imitate art.
The composition of this track (the whole album even) is unique and outstanding. Suleiman’s vocals give the lyrics the urgency they deserve. The percussion also creates a kind of unnatural, frenetic pace that would suit the lifestyle the singer is pursuing. And Brasstracks’ time their high-energy emotive accompaniment just right.
poetic reverb 