Mean and Co's debut shows they can pull off more than airy acoustic pop songs.
Moving And Cut/ Moving And Cut
When we first covered Moving and Cut back in 2013, there wasn't much to be known about the band (even assuming it was a band at all) except that it was spearheaded by graphic designer-turned-musician Parin "Mean" Korawis and that his debut single, Ploi Hai Tua Chan Pai (Please Let Me Go), existed in the acoustic pop territory also championed by then-emerging singer-songwriter Stoondio.
With self-pitying lyrics and airy acoustic guitar, the song would later prove to be a sleeper hit, having to date racked up about seven million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, Moving And Cut have evolved into a fully fledged quintet with additional members Book (guitar), Cartoon (synths), Ton (drums) and Tonyang (bass), joining Mean in the line-up.
Their self-titled, self-released debut album is by and large an extension of lead single Ploi Hai Tua Chan Pai. Opener Rak Tee Thur Bok Ma (The Love You Told Me) kicks off with isolated vocals before gradually gaining momentum as it heads into the chorus. "You asked for my love then/But now you've gone and hurt me/Our love is over and done with/The love you used to dream of/It comes back to haunt me," Mean sings in his signature whispery tone.
Kam Bok La (Goodbye) follows with a similar sentiment, but boasts a crisp, almost grungy guitar line. Took Yang Yung Meun Derm (Everything's Still the Same) starts out with a wistful acoustic guitar. Before things get predictable, however, the song suddenly slows down, the void filled with distant guitar effects which build to a satisfying finish.
Chan Mai Keuy Roo (Unsuspecting) sees Mean at his most musically upbeat as he reflects on his past love, wishing he could have done things differently.
The shift in tempo can also be found on Riew Rang Krang Sud Tai (The Final Straw). Here, the fivesome get adventurous and go for the unexpected: supple indie-pop guitar line and Vocodered vocals. Although these songs would have been flawless if Mean had the vocal capacity to carry them off, we still get a glimpse of the band's enormous potential.
The last three songs, Hai Jai (Breathe), Plob (Consolation) and Parn Pai Eek Wan (Another Passing Day) circle back to where it all started: plenty of acoustic guitars and even more yearning lyrics resulting from a relationship breakdown.
At this point, there's no denying that Moving and Cut have successfully established a sound that's distinctively theirs. Built on the success of the first single, their studio debut ebbs and flows cohesively, and the stories it tells correspond to themes of heartbreak of one sort or another.
This is an album full of familiar-sounding acoustic goodness, but more than that, it's an album that comes with an occasional flash of brilliance in which we see the band pushing out of their comfort zone and give us something entirely different.
THE PLAYLIST
Yena/ Toh Khee
Bangkok-based folk-rock trio Yena aren't ones to shy away from making social commentary. Their 2014 self-titled EP contained songs that told stories of the working class and touched on heavier issues ranging from a police officer killed in the line of duty all the way to the southern insurgency. Their latest cut, Toh Khee (Toilet bowl), sees the threesome still chipping away at social issues, questioning the notion of social hierarchy and how at the end of the day there really is no us-versus-them and that we are all essentially "squatting over the same toilet bowl".
Leonard Cohen/ You Want It Darker
Seasoned troubadour Leonard Cohen teams up with Montreal's Cantor Gideon Zelermyer and the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir on You Want It Darker, lead single/title track to his soon-to-be-released 14th studio record. Released on Cohen's 82nd birthday, the song is a sombre rumination on faith and human condition. "Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name/Vilified, crucified, in the human frame/A million candles burning for the help that never came," he delivers a spoken-word sermon that wonderfully matches the track's haunting minor-key bassline.
Devendra Banhart/ Saturday Night
There's always a sense of otherworldly warmth and tenderness to Devendra Banhart's music and his latest offering, Saturday Night, is no exception. Lifted from Banhart's ninth LP, Ape in Pink Marble, the track follows acoustic lead single Middle Names and finds the LA-based singer-songwriter crooning alongside a lo-fi, minimal synth backdrop. "You're a blue sky decomposing/As we all embrace what we've become/And love always is merging to one … Please don't love me because, don't love me because/You're through hating you," he implores in the chorus, never once raising his voice above a murmur.
Dirty Projectors/ Keep Your Name
Keep You Name, Dirty Projectors' first new song in four years since 2012's Swing Lo Magellan, starts out innocently enough with a couple of church bells and a grand piano chord. But just when you thought this was another run-of-the-mill ballad, frontman David Longstreth pipes in with a brutal opening verse: "I don't know why you abandoned me/You were my soul and my partner/What we imagined and what we became/We'll keep them separate and you keep your name." Built on a warped sample of last album's Impregnable Question, the song is full of ache and sonic surprises -- a glitch here and there, a skeletal drum and even a rap breakdown.
Moby & The Void Pacific Choir/ Are You Lost In The World Like Me?
After releasing a short video clip reciting a politically and environmentally charged manifesto titled These Systems are Failing, Moby finally drops a follow-up cut, Are You Lost In The World Like Me?, under his new project Moby & The Void Pacific Choir. Don't expect anything remotely like his breakthrough album Play, though, because this song packs a pure new-wave energy coupled with fierce, scintillating synths straight out of the early nineties.
