Wild Child pure,
human on ‘Fools’
New album by
indie-folk duo has
European sensibility
By DANIELLE RAY
Daily Arts Writer
I first heard of Wild Child last
semester when my friend came
back from studying abroad and
began
gush-
ing to me about
their
show
in
Paris.
She
quickly became
obsessed
and
so did I, think-
ing I had dis-
covered
this
cool, upcoming
French band before anyone else.
Little did I know, they’re from
Austin, Texas. But still.
Wild Child’s third studio album,
Fools, delves even further into this
foreign-sounding
pattern;
this
effort reminds me more of Coeur
de pirate — a French-Canadian
singer-songwriter who produces
fresh, indie-sounding tunes — than
anything I’ve ever heard come out
of Texas.
This is particularly evident on
“Stones,” the fourth track that
embodies a mix between Coeur
and Ingrid Michaelson, as it bobs
and flows up and down between
melodies. Track seven, “Take It,”
keeps the Coeur influence and
bouncing beat, but also adds in a
little Adele — a little European soul
and sass — as lead vocalist Kelsey
Wilson asks you to “take it, take it
... how about trusting when I’m not
around?”
The whole sound of Fools is
highly refreshing, highly different
than the mass-produced, cotton-
candy pop music so common today
— even highly different from other
American folk or indie bands, as
it weaves in a European style that
makes it obvious as to why a Texas
band could sell a show halfway
across the world.
The title track begins the album;
Wilson coos, “thinking that I might
go crazy. How am I supposed to
breathe now, baby?” While Wil-
son’s voice is pure and beautiful,
and the lyrics are enchanting, it’s
neither of those that pull you into
Wild Child’s latest effort. Rather
it’s the fact that Fools sounds more
like it was mixed in your hipster,
audio-file friend’s basement than
a master studio. It becomes highly
apparent that Wild Child’s latest
effort isn’t only special because of
its unique foreign sound, but it’s
also because of the deep connec-
tion between Wilson’s raw vocals
and her listener.
Even more so than on previ-
ous albums, Wild Child sounds
pure, simple and human on Fools
— unprocessed, if you will. Wilson
definitely takes center stage on
all 12 tracks, but Alexander Beg-
gins also makes equally enthrall-
ing appearances, most notably on
“Meadows,” by far the standout
track on the album.
“Meadows” begins as a little
ditty, much like the majority of
the tracks on the album, but it
then builds to a crescendo half-
way through that features much
more obviously processed vocals
that directly contrast with the
raw allure of the first half of the
song. As Wilson asks you to “rid
your devils; run through fields of
meadows,” the vocal processing
mimics that diabolical feeling in its
opposition to the soft, pure, angelic
sounds at the start.
Fools is an album that slowly
draws you in, getting better and
better with each track. “Bullets,”
track three, begins by sounding
almost like a Christmas song. The
chord progression and rhythm is
oddly similar to “Jingle Bells,” but
it ends up sounding more like a
French-influenced indie-pop tune.
“Meadows” is the next big step-
ping stone as track five, followed
by “Saving Face,” showing up in
spot number eight. “Face” is the
only true duet between Wilson and
Beggins, and their soulful croon-
ing really makes you believe their
tale of a love-torn relationship.
“Trillo Talk” closes out the
album, a seemingly-happy-sound-
ing up-tempo number about a
breakup: “you say I should have
been a better babe, and you can
go be a better babe for anyone else
but me.” Starting with the voice in
her head at the beginning of the
phrase and slowly traveling to her
lower register, Wilson conveys the
sense of regret by adding a little
rasp, a little edge, to her sound.
I can only imagine “Trillo Talk”
to be an answer to “Rillo Talk,” the
penultimate track on their previ-
ous studio album, The Runaround
— a haunting ballad about trying
to make a relationship work (but
that’s kind of up for interpretation,
as are much of Wild Child’s lyrics).
On “Rillo,” Wilson’s voice is soft,
dejected almost, and on “Trillo”
she ramps it up, conveying her
newfound couldn’t-care-less atti-
tude about the relationship.
Wild Child will be in Ann Arbor
on Halloween, seemingly appro-
priate to the spooky feeling behind
Wilson’s voice. Ten out of 10 would
recommend going, singing along to
“Meadows,” calling the devil out to
play the day after Devil’s Night.
ALBUM REVIEW
DUALTONE RECORDS
“Maybe they’ve got baguettes in that cloud!”
A-
Fools
Wild Child
Dualtone Records
JR JR in good form
on third studio album
By CATHERINE BAKER
Daily Arts Writer
It’s the first Saturday of the
year without a football game
and I’m not entirely sure what to
do with myself.
It has been a
hectic week to
say the least,
and
I
could
be using this
time to write
that essay that
I
have
been
putting off or
doing
some
much-needed cleaning of my
kitchen. Instead, I am spending
the lovely but dreary day sit-
ting in the same sofa crease for
six hours, catching up on all the
shows I have missed. (Is anyone
else loving “Scream Queens?”)
Besides Kerry Washington
perpetuating
my
obsession
with Scandal, I have also come
across an up-and-coming band
on my Spotify Discover Weekly
playlist. JR JR, formerly known
as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., is a
classic
American
indie-pop
band that originated in Detroit
and now consists of Daniel Zott
and Joshua Epstein. The two
met each other while playing
in other Detroit music proj-
ects, and they began record-
ing in Zott’s basement in Royal
Oak. They recently released a
self-titled album on Septem-
ber 25th that deals with the
classic theme of youth, shed-
ding uncomfortable skin and
being reborn as their true
selves. It’s a typical recipe for
the quintessential “coming-of-
age” soundtrack, yet Zott and
Epstein manage to transform
a seemingly simple sound into
one of poignancy and nostalgia.
In this third studio album, they
strip down unnecessary bells
and whistles to focus on their
own combination of ideas, cre-
ating songs like “Gone,” which
to be sung in a karaoke bar, and
“Hypothetical,”
which
uses
musical techniques I have never
heard before.
“Caroline” tells a story of
coming to terms with your own
decisions
through
vibrating
synthetic piano and lyrics, “Oh
my Caroline / No one is going
to live my life for me.” “In The
Middle” is reminiscent of a
Duran Duran disco dance track,
complete with distorted voices
and electric guitar riffs.
My personal favorite track,
“Philip the Engineer,” feels like
the last song played at a bar
before closing for the night, using
strange dystopian future meta-
phors to represent fading youth
and broken relationships. “Time
makes grownups sound like kids
/ You can’t stop the time / So
kiss your kids goodbye,” the song
fades, tugging on your heart-
strings and forcing you to reflect
on your own childhood.
“In My Mind (Summertime)”
switches gears, sounding like an
indie version of the Beach Boys
that you would listen to while
watching the waves lap up on
the beach. The subdued “In my
mind / You’re the summertime /
So please don’t go away” are com-
forting words for someone not
quite ready for winter yet. (Seri-
ously, where did Fall go?)
These common ideas of find-
ing love, finding yourself and leav-
ing things behind while growing
up is what makes JR JR univer-
sal, despite how un-hipster they
make make you seem. I’ve recently
become quite nostalgic for myself
(is that a thing?) and have been
doing a lot of thinking about
choices I’ve made, choices I will
make and where I’ve come from.
So on this rainy day, tucked away
in a dark, quiet apartment, JR JR
produces indie pop that simulta-
neously makes me feel very cliché
and very unique. There’s not much
more that I could ask for.
B+
JR JR
JR JR
Warner Bros.
Records, Inc.
ALBUM REVIEW
‘The Affair’ balances
tone in season two
By BENJAMIN ROSENSTOCK
Daily Arts Writer
Over the course of the first
season of “The Affair,” the series
struggled to nail down what
exactly its tone
should be. The
pilot,
possibly
the
best
epi-
sode, pulled it
off better than
any other epi-
sode. It was a
slow-paced,
atmospheric
show
based
around
an
affair,
filtered
through the conflicting perspec-
tives of two lovers telling their
story to the police. Each episode
was essentially a pair of quiet,
contemplative short stories, with
a tantalizing crime mystery lurk-
ing in the background. As the
season went on, “The Affair”
focused a little too much on that
overarching crime plot. By entic-
ing the audience with murder and
melodrama, the slow pace of the
personal drama became increas-
ingly dull.
Luckily, the season two pre-
miere of “The Affair” manages
to recapture that precarious tone
established by the pilot. Once
again, there is a pair of under-
stated short stories that share
many of the same events and
characters, and once again, there
is a future timeline focused on
the characters dealing with the
police. The balance is crucial; too
much slow-paced teasing and the
audience will grow tired of wheel-
spinning, but too much crime and
bombast and the show will lose
the intensely personal tone that
makes it unique.
This year, instead of focusing
exclusively on Noah Solloway
(Dominic West, “The Wire”)
and Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson,
“Saving Mr. Banks”), the series
has added two new perspectives:
those of Helen (Maura Tierney,
“ER”) and Cole (Joshua Jackson,
“Fringe”), the two spouses Noah
and Alison betrayed by sleep-
ing together. The first half of the
premiere shows a day in the life
of Noah as he meets with Helen
to finalize their divorce and deals
with his children’s resentment
towards him, only to return home
to his happy relationship with
Alison. The second half shows
Helen’s perspective for the first
time. Much like with Alison’s
last year, it becomes obvious that
Noah probably isn’t exactly the
great guy the audience imagines
him being.
In many dramas featuring infi-
delity and divorce, the exes are
gradually phased out once their
roles in the story are seemingly
complete. In “Mad Men,” Betty
and Megan’s episode counts
were greatly reduced after their
divorces from Don, and viewers
recoiled whenever they made
future appearances. Like “Break-
ing Bad,” however, “The Affair”
benefits by taking the male lead’s
victimized wife and giving her
a more prominent, complex role
in the narrative. Not only does
Helen serve to pay for Noah’s
expensive lawyer in the future
timeline, but the audience finally
gets a glimpse into her inner psy-
chology. The show gives a previ-
ously underdeveloped character
a newfound agency.
Another great advantage to
the addition of new perspectives
is that it gives the show many
more possible avenues to explore.
When looked at as a whole, not
much actually happened narra-
tively last year. Noah and Alison
began an affair and ended up
separating from their partners to
be together. At some point in the
future, we know that someone
will kill Cole’s brother, Scotty
(Colin Donnell, “Arrow”), and
Noah will be suspected, probably
because Scotty got his underage
daughter Whitney (Julia Goldani
Telles, “Bunheads”) pregnant.
There were subplots, like Noah’s
financial reliance on his disap-
proving in-laws and the writing of
Noah’s new book, but most screen
time was devoted either to Noah
and Alison’s gradual romance or
the sluggish telegraphing of Scot-
ty’s murder. So the introduction
of two new perspectives hope-
fully indicates that the second-
ary characters will play more of a
role, and that there’ll be a slightly
deeper plot reserve to draw from
in upcoming episodes.
More striking than the strong
acting and naturalistic direction
of “The Affair” is its pace and
tone, which make it stand out in
the TV landscape. Some viewers
will inevitably be put off by long
takes of people sitting motion-
lessly and silently contemplating
their mistakes, but with these
well-drawn characters, it’s fas-
cinating to watch them slowly
work through their issues and fall
again and again into patterns of
self-sabotage. Helen has always
been presented the same way, as
an angry nuisance to Noah, but as
she lies dejected during sex with
new boyfriend Max (Josh Stam-
berg, “Parenthood”), it’s imme-
diately clear how much purpose
her life has lost in the wake of
Noah’s deceptions.
Like the first season, the second
season of “The Affair” starts on a
very solid note, striking a wise
balance of character introspec-
tion and serialized crime story-
telling. As long as future episodes
maintain that equilibrium and
remain dedicated to the show’s
exploration of memory bias, this
season may surpass the first.
SHOWTIME
“Just tell me if the food tastes like shit.”
A-
The Affair
Season Two
Premiere
Sundays at
10 p.m.
Showtime
The classic
theme of youth.
Both cliché and
very unique.
TV REVIEW
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 — 7A