The notion of isolated pieces of outdated pop culture returning for a brief comeback is nothing unusual; in fact, the recycling of bygone fads and trends has come to be almost expected. The idea of an entire decade coming back into vogue en masse, however, is something not as familiar. Thanks mostly in part to the talking head clip shows of VH1, the specter of the 1980s lurks among us again, not for a specific feature but rather as a carefree, idyllically remembered setting. Most importantly, this has resulted in a stock industry of nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.
This trend ties in neatly with the indie scene’s current preoccupation with making everything enticingly dancey. When looking for danciness, the obvious first choice is to look to the 1980s, a decade which had more than its share of irresistible synth lines. The Bloodthirsty Lovers surely aren’t the first band to recycle this sound, nor are they the best or the worst at it. In a purely ironic twist, the only noteworthy thing about their music is its lack of any noteworthy qualities.
The best quality of classic 1980s songs was an ability to be impossibly light and catchy. Even The Cure had a visible layer of breeziness running under their gloomy exteriors. The trick is, there needs to be some modicum of relevance or quality under that cotton candy surface, good vibes alone do not have the ability to make a song good.
This is not to say that The Delicate Seam is bad, it actually is an enjoyable listen, filled with catchy tunes, and singer David Shouse’s voice pleasantly recalls Bowie or more recently, John Vanderslice. The negative is the ephemeral quality of these songs; they lack any recognizable qualities and pass through the ears without leaving much of an impression.
On Tigermilk, Belle & Sebastian filled “Electronic Renaissance” with synthesizer fuzz and toe-tapping drum machine beats. Criteria took a similar approach in “Rescue Rescue” on En Garde. Both were excellent albums, and both covered in one song what the Bloodthirsty Lovers spend an entire album doing; reveling in the musical simulacrum of a bygone era. The point is that looking back can be fun, but bringing back nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake forces the resultant product to end up hollow and filled with air. A good portion of the music in the 1980s was just bad, and no amount of nostalgic hindsight can change that.
-Jesse Cataldo
