05/05/2021-Neo-Folk
I want to talk neo/anti-folk! I’d say it’s my favorite genre... but I don’t want to close myself off. There’s so much music out there. I suppose it’s just what most of my playlists consist of. Not intentionally... It just happens that way. Frankie Cosmos, Jeffrey Lewis, Sidney Gish, Paul Baribeau & Kimya Dawson take up a lot of space on my spotify (lol)! It’s something homemade, something friendly. It sounds like a song your friend made up just for you. They’ll play it to you in the kitchen & laugh because they just can’t help it. It’s unpretentious in the best way. I’ve also found that artists in this genre will often name specific people in their lyrics. People we as listeners don’t know. But this choice welcomes us into their world. I think Frankie Cosmos does this a lot, when she talks about her friends being in love, etc. On her 2016 album “Next Thing” a person named “Jessie” makes a frequent appearance. After listening to the album all the way through, you get a good sense of who they are. The same goes for Kimya who speaks a lot about her other musician friends.
The genre is full of other “esoteric” (for lack of a better word) specificites (books/movies/places). You would think that these references would be so obscure that they wouldn’t be relatable. But it actually has the opposite effect. I feel fully immersed in the universe of the song. And it is for that reason I love it so much. :,)
