Blogarhythms

If you live in the United States and were watching television last night chances are good you caught the address outgoing President George W. Bush gave on the state of the US economy. And if you saw his fumbling, uneasily delivered speech you’re now fully aware of the financial Armageddon that’s apparently lurking on the other side of his tenure as commander in chief.

Assuming your name isn’t John McCain you were probably all-too-familiar with the stark realities of our country’s economy already. I know I am. I have been for quite some time. I already lived through a foreclosure. I’ve known the score on predatory lenders and the way financial institutions deal in debt for over a decade. I’ve been homeless. I’ve seen schools and libraries in my city shuttered for lack of funds. I knew, and still know, how it feels to be so broke you don’t know if you’re going to be able to cover the cost of bills or the basic expenses of life any given month.

It’s heartbreaking. And it’s unforgivable for people who have to fear those harsh realities, whose fragile hopes and dreams for the future are so easily shattered, to be expected to bail out the financial elite of this nation. Especially when the beneficiaries of those financial interests often go to such great lengths to avoid having to share their wealth or put it to work for the common welfare of our nation, its infrastructure and its citizens. Personally I believe we deserve better than being asked to subsidize wealthier people’s greed while the prospect of our own financial ruin stares us in the face, especially after shouldering the multi-billion-dollar burden of a war built on lies for the last five years.

I’m pretty sure there’s a way we can prevent this sort of thing from happening again, for another four-to-eight-year stretch at least. But I’ll get into that later because I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about music at least a little bit first. I can start by assuring you it’s no coincidence that I decided to put on a record titled Lies by a London-based Electro-Pop duo called Heartbreak this morning. It’s not a political record at all. Nor does it deal with matters of high finance. In fact, it’s largely a feel-good affair dedicated to partying and dancing with a couple of emotionally bare songs that deal with the dark side of romantic relationships tossed into the mix. But the soul-crushing connotations of the band-name itself and their choice of album-titles just couldn’t go unnoticed on the morning after a two-faced politician pronounced fiduciary doom for his subjects and then asked them to foot the bill to keep his cronies’ businesses afloat.

The duo, comprised of Ali Renault on keys and Sebastian Muravchix on vocals, flaunt a sound that melds frosty European Synthpop and Italo-Disco with New York’s post-disco Dance-Pop and proto-Freestyle (think New Order, Depeche Mode and Frankie Goes to Hollywood meets Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and Shannon) but come off most like US Glam-Pop chameleons Sparks during their late ’70s Giorgio Moroder-produced phase. Of course, if they were more like the Mael brothers they totally could have written sarcasm-dripping songs about lying politicians and opportunistic financiers, but the most conceptual they get is singing about “Mr. T on LSD” (on “Soul Transplant”), pining for a sexy dancing disco cyborg (on “Robot’s Got the Feeling”) and comparing romance to primitive video games the most gruesome aspects of the desire for everlasting love (on “Deadly Pong of Love”). The similarity to Sparks in my mind is no doubt a product of Muravchix’s vocal style, which share much in common with Russell Mael’s (his cadence on “Poison” seems directly inspired by Sparks’ “Tryouts for the Human Race”) as well as similarly operatic singers such as Styx’s Dennis DeYoung (see “Give Me Action” especially) and Queen’s Freddie Mercury (on “Soul Transplant” in particular) among others.

Heartbreak “Poison”

If you enjoy bouncing around to drama-infused retro-futurist Robo-Pop from Blogarhythms alumni like Lo-Fi-Fnk, Sally Shapiro, Chromeo, Neon Neon, Ghostland Observatory, Stereo Image, Hercules & Love Affair or Sparks’ classic LP No. 1 In Heaven, giving Heartbreak’s Lies a spin might actually take your mind off the real-life heartbreak and lies we’re currently being confronted with. But if dancing your troubles away while the powers that be say “let them eat (yellow?) cake” doesn’t seem like an option to you at this point I have something else to suggest…

Get informed… Get active… Get registered if you aren’t… And VOTE in the upcoming election! I realize that many members of my generation are disaffected, feel disenfranchised and have never felt like we had anything to vote for. I myself felt that way until recently. But shit is really bad, and we need to take responsibility for ourselves and the world we live in. And while you’re free to disagree, I feel as though in Barack Obama we finally have a real option which is actually worth taking a chance on and making an effort for, not just another “lesser of two evils” situation. I just hope we’re not so used to “evil” as our only option that we pass up a chance to opt for hope, optimism and change.

And if I can’t talk you into taking the country back, at least make sure the soundtrack you have lined up for its imminent collapse isn’t wack.