Musical Sleaze

During the 2k10’s, music was endowed with a vintage-like sound which created nostalgia and angst. This perfectly echos the tragic climax of the indie sleaze era. You’re feeling like an absolute mess at a grubby party and will later complain on your tumblr blog. Taking an hour to do your black liner that will drip when balling your sunken eyes for the imaginary 40-year-old who broke your heart and later be smudged by partying too hard to forget him. During this pivotal period, music encapsulated the American dream of the time: an intriguing blend of heartbreak and degeneracy resulting in the chase for money and parties. Nonetheless, not everyone mastered this artistry, and we will therefore go through some of the best and worst albums of that time.

In 2013, Bangerz exceptionally resonated with the angst but also liberating transition Miley underwent from unfortunate Disney princess to pop queen. The artist Miley grew into during her Bangerz era mirrored the craze and revolutionary emancipation for reckless provocation that were ostensibly the 2k10s. The ambitious album is as provocative as the Cobrasnake’s flash photography capturing every gruesome detail of Miley’s profound emotions throughout her journey. Uh oh, she cut her hair, is always half-naked and her tongue can’t help but lick anything from hammers to VMA awards. But the “Miley Mania” seemed to overshadow the album she was promoting and thank god because it was indubitably not her best. Even though some notable songs wrecked the charts, this pop album realistically is the confirmation that in 2013, pop was dead and indie became mainstream. There appears to be no true coherence musically nor lyrically. Moreover listeners seem to partake in a party in which they know nobody and the host is too wasted to actually have a good time. Not the greatest of parties if you ask me…

Because there is no remedy for memory, we doubt you forgot when Lana Del Rey blessed the world in 2014 with her subsequent studio album: Ultraviolence. Because alternative music became mainstream again with independent releases such as Born to Die, It’s Blitz! or even Pure Heroine, Lana Del Rey adequately explores a more experimental side of her music by introducing a psychedelic-rock guitar sound to most of the songs. Controversially beautiful, the singer’s explicit lyrics are an invitation to a baroque ballad in her emotional decadence: “he hit me and it felt like a kiss” she sings. This got tweens crying and feeling nostalgic about a passionate romance they never had because they in fact never left their shabby room. This feeling is at the heart of the musical genre of the time: how can an artist so powerfully convey raw emotions and make something so unrelatable actually relatable? If you are incapable to travel this summer, Ultraviolence will instantly transport you to the West Coast and make you live the best romance you will likely ever have.

If you were on tumblr in the 2k10’s, you could not have missed the it band The 1975, the grunge, indie, and way better version of One Direction. In 2013, the band released their self-titled debut album through the label Dirty Hit which is up until now still the coolest label. The album resonates powerfully with the 2k10’s indie culture in which toxicity and decrepitude were romanticized as a form of catharsis to the latter. The music video for Robbers, welly sketches what is to come with the band: romantic angst with a pinch of grub and the ever-lasting chase of exaltation. Matty Healy said the song is about “couples so intoxicated with one another that they fear nothing in the pursuit of the realization of each other, actions fueled by blind unconditional love.” “You look so cool xxx” we can surreptitiously read on the napkin the girlfriend slips him at the end of the video, referencing the movie True Romance: she’s unable to say I love you, and he’s unable to notice it. The acclaimed album is built on profound ambivalence. A seamless blend of indie-rock and soft-electronic with its upbeat tempo and distressing lyrics plunging you in a cocktail of young adulthood angst and an urgent need to escape.

Before the 2k10’s even started, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs foreshadowed everything that was to come. In their third album, It’s Blitz!, the band echoes the tipping of pop to indie by coherently creating a “glittery new disco” sound as said by Caroline Sullivan for The Guardian in 2009. In my humble opinion, the musical duo LMFAO evidently got inspired by this album but tuned it to the max. The sharp 80s-like synth arpeggiators compose an appealing melody but at the same time the rock-inspired drums and electric guitar generate a unique sound that is a call to partying, sleaze and decadence. Because the indie sleaze era is unavoidably coming back, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs announced a new album coming in September 2022. Their lead single Spitting of the Edge of the World featuring the one and only Perfume Genius is out now.

xoxo, Balthazar