Name: Good Songs For Bad People
Brand: Drab City

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

BELLA1020CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2020-06-12

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5400863027872

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Drab City

Genre GB

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label GB

Bella Union

Bella Union is a UK label that has been run by Simon Raymonde, former member of Cocteau Twins, since 1997. With a focus on discovering new talent, Bella Union has introduced the world to bands such as Fleet Foxes, Beach House, Lanterns on The Lake, I Break Horses, Ballet School, and Midlake. As a ℗ & © coyright holding entity, Bella Union continues to be at the forefront of the music industry.

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What a great album - imagine Julee Cruise doing the soundtrack to Killing Eve? Or Mazzy Star miraculously transported back to ye-ye France. A heady air of dislocation envelops Drab City’s debut album, where songs of innocence and experience merge with dub, hip-hop, dream-pop and jazzy soundtrack vibes to intoxicating effect. Drab City are fixated on social alienation, violent revenge, and (perhaps) romantic love as salvation; topics not new in music, but listening to Drab City in 2020, one is struck by how uncommon they’ve become. Lyrically, these songs often project punkish angst and resentment. Working For the Men is a degraded service worker’s revenge ballad, imagining male tormenters brought to a violent end. Hand On My Pocket tells of a destitute, wandering youth. One night she meets a stranger on a desert road, and is told of a nearby city where a soft, rich citizenry make easy targets. Class war is palpable.

Other songs are more opaque, but seem to speak of being the black sheep of the family, or being weighed down by the dullness of hometown life. Yet the casual listener might not notice the violence as the music itself is far from abrasive. Dreamy and ethereal, a foundation of flute, vibraphone, and jazzy guitar chord melody can switch to drum machines or funk-inflected girl-group pop at a moment’s notice. It’s a flurry of 20th century references, combining and recombining at such a schizophrenic pace, the overall effect is something that could only be conjured in our frenzied present. At once catchy and unfamiliar, the melodic, welcoming soundscapes are a Trojan horse for the band’s antisocial outlook.

Good Songs For Bad People

Music GB

Buy Drab City - Good Songs For Bad People (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.