Preoccupations, MVLL Crimes, and Jacob Brodovsky
Preoccupations
Arrangements // Flemish Eye
For their latest offering, Preoccupations (formerly Viet Cong) continues on their trajectory of doom that was set off by their rebranding in 2016. Dealing in dark vagueries and morose modalities, Arrangements is the sound of a band finding their footing in a new sonic realm. They have danced in the darkness for some time now, but it has been with mixed results. In 2022, however, there is no nocturnal stumbling from Preoccupations. Arrangements is loud, proud, and strange enough to keep you wondering what the hell they’re talking about.
Right from the opening song “Fix Bayonets!” we are reminded of the post punk powerhouse that bore their self-titled debut. Guitars squealing erratically, vocals bouncing in haunting echoes, drums driving onward fiercely, and noise crunching and crashing all around, we are drenched in cacophonous paranoia. From that opening track, the downward spiral continues. Where their dark approach has seemed misguided in previous efforts, Arrangements succeeds as Preoccupations has learned to blend their new synth sensibilities with their old killer noise instincts. We are left with a sense of urgency as it meets us – and our existential doom - in the moment. In 2022, Preoccupations has matured into a guide for our collective march towards madness.
They whisper and groan in vague echoes that do little to comfort and more to confound. Although it feels like we’re searching for its meaning through cataracts, their vague moans land with potency for anyone feeling the pain and anxiety of our current moment. I think these songs will mean different things to me each time I listen as time passes and the world changes around me. Arrangements has the flexibility to transpose its message onto each of our plights, but leaves little room for hope.
For those of us who have stuck with Preoccupations through a few curveballs, Arrangements is a welcome addition to their catalogue, and a brilliant sign of where the band could be headed. While there is hope for the band, they continue to remind us that there is little hope for the rest of us. At least the apocalypse will sound good, if Preoccupations has any to say about it.
- Clay Geddert
MVLL Crimes
YOU EMBVRRVSS ME // Cursed Blessings Records
800ms into the first track of You Embvrrvss Me and I am hooked. Everything about this band is made for me. Absolutely delicious tones and ferocious rhythms combined with slightly anarchist deadpan lyrics delivered with raw power. Merely hearing this band feels like being in a biker gang. Punk and then tilt your head to the side and show ‘em your crazy eyes punk.
The energy of the music has a tongue in cheek A Clockwork Orange smirking aggression to it. It has an uncanny ease, which makes its manic bursts and hinting at violence even more scary. There is something special about this band. They all build off of each other just so to make it come alive as a single organism of personal and cultural devastation and rebirth.
MVLL Crimes carries an armful of gleeful annihilation into the pit. Burn it all down, it’s all made up anyways. Go on, have a laugh. It’s a fiery free for all of pent up tension to go ballistic to, You Embvrrvss Me delivers the sauce straight to your face hole.
I can’t pick a favourite track, this is a rare collection of songs where upon hearing it, I just set it on repeat. It is still on repeat. The EP is a juggernaut of bared fang, electric and terrifying, raucous and exhilarating. The sound is physical, you can almost hold it in your arms like warm laundry out of the dryer.
When talking about drawing inspiration when writing in an interview, Jill said “it’s a way of taking all those feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness and turning them into something that makes life a little more bearable”. Much gratitude to these 4 people; Jill, Patrick, Laurie, and Evan, for making my life a little more bearable.
- Joel Klaverkamp
Jacob Brodovsky
I Love You and I’m Sorry // Self Released
I Love You and I’m Sorry is a love letter to strife. Brodovsky describes the album being “about letting down the people you love and trying to fix it.” Brodovsky also says “this is the first body of music I’ve ever released where I can stand to listen to the songs 2-3 years after writing.”
The first track of the album, “Me and My Mental Health,” is a song about putting together a puzzle - each piece of it fits perfectly together. The song is also uniquely his but a listener can connect to any one facet of it. It is a monument to murmuring, and mental strength. The strings swell in just the right spots. The guitar has a soft melody that Brodovsky places a gentle stamp on it.
The second track, “Night Baker,” is a folksy tune. A short profile of a man. The lyrics resonate and they tell an important story about a particularly ordinary man. It discusses loneliness: “The night baker / once a giver, now a taker / if only he had mouths to feed.” It is an original take on a break up song, and the devastation it has wreaked. It is repetitive to conjure images of monotony. It includes a very neat and clean guitar that lights the mood like yeast does for bread.
The third track, “Blockbuster,” has a mourning chorus - a tribute to getting high, and basking in the glory of the abstract filled with swirling lights. The drums anchor the song, so that the radiating sadness has a grounding point on earth. A description of casual trauma.
The fourth track, “Weatherman,” has folk guitar sounds. A highlight of the lyrics include the lyric: “you were sad in a pretty way.”That line could describe the entire album. A graceful depiction of a sorrowful story. The guitar is reliable and sounds as if it has struck tin. Brodovsky is a genius songwriter, evoking emotion with the line “Not a meteorologist / but someone just pointing out the rain.”
The fifth track, “Likewise,” is about dynamics shifting within a relationship, but inertia still remains for the speaker. A deep caring support for a person disguised as indifference. The swelling strings bring out swelling emotions that permeate the song.
The sixth, and titular, track “I Love You and I’m Sorry,” features a jaunty drum beat. A perfect song to start off with, in that it sums up the sadness that Brodovsky feels while providing clever, cutting vocals. He even states: “I can make words less thorny.” The shrinking, and apologetic album is compiled perfectly.
The seventh track, “Get so Mad,” discusses the usage of coping strategies used and how they have destructive powers. The song is about weakness, and the push back for strength, repeating, “I get so mad / when they make you cry.”
The eighth track, “A Song Called Blame,” features the lyrics: “I’m a doormat / I’m a cliche.” It’s a song about listening to the darker part of your psyche; personifying Blame and repeating what they are saying to him, “I sleep with blame… They tell me I should still be upset.” This song is highly relatable in the dark weapons of an unconscious arsenal.
The tenth, and final track of the album is called “Summertime Blues.” Right out of the gate the listener hears sad strings, with a trusty snare drum. The strings are mournful, but punctured by hopeful guitar.
Brodovsky has created a genius album: each line carefully constructed, each note perfectly sung. A soft whisper of sadness that grows and inspires.
- Kyra MacFarlane
