Thy Will be Done
Stereolab — Crest(1993 / Rock-Pop-Ye Ye-who knows?)
Hello internet pals of music. Today we’re tired. But alive.
This next song goes out to:
The South African Lex Luthor wannabe with the waving problem.
That other weird South African with the shiny, wet-looking skin.
His fake hillbilly, pay for play, party boy.
The other Lex Luthor wannabe that is actually bald and actually a supervillian.
The stupid fake real estate mogul-liar-convicted criminal (most of all, but not by much).
Every single weird despotic cretin (a deepening pocket).
Those fuckwits overlording the new Middle East Riviera.
The absolute monsters eating the DRC (fuck Paul Kagame while I’m at it).
Every criminal billionaire (the real welfare queens).
Me.
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I believe in a few things. I believe in the power of a just society. I believe in the goodwill of common people. I believe in the power of hope.
And I believe in Stereolab.
Stereolab to me is what The Beatles is to my mom. A thread that binds every point of my life after that first time hearing them. When I want to feel young, or to feel free, or to feel alive, or to feel joy, but to also feel sadness, there is Stereolab. They are the warm blanket I wrap myself in, the shroud that also acts as chainmail agains the cynicism the power hungry rely on.
There is so much focus on their endless expansion of sound, their quest to find new ways to shuffle the musical past—as listeners, and as excited participants. They are undoubtedly one of the most adventurous bands of the time, and their influence is so strong that most people are unaware of it. A triumph of soft power.
But for as great as their music is, the real strength is in the lyrics. And this where Stereolab for me becomes art—using familiar sounds in new disruptive ways to open you up for reviewing the world around you as a place we create, and can create differently.
I’m putting together a Stereolab playlist, although I’d like to find a better way than streaming services. So who knows. But in the meanwhile, these lyrics are a reminder to every single person in that list above (and that includes you).
If there’s been a way to build it
There’ll be a way to destroy it
Things are not all that out of control
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a perpetual Top 10 album for me right there. perfection. (and yes! this is a good reminder for a very effective counterbalance to today's despair - I am putting it on immediately. thank you)
I love the phrase "A triumph of soft power". Been thinking a lot about soft power in context of our newly diminished system of foreign aide. The world needs more soft power. Like Stereolab.