Checking in on the Brits…

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Iain Mew: Remember that old joke about Pac-Man? If video games had affected us as kids we’d all be running around in dark rooms, eating pills and listening to repetitive electronic music, or something like that? Now video games’ influence on not just dance but pop music is clearer than ever, to the extent that something making it as explicit as “Level Up” isn’t that striking, but something seems weird about the timing of the current 8-bit/16-bit breakout. Today’s 18 year olds were born in 1994, the same year as the PlayStation came out. Surely young pop audiences should be nostalgic for less basic sounds? (I’ll give you Danny Brown and Final Fantasy VII). Is it just about the artists being of a certain age? In this case Sway was born in 1983, but producer Flux Pavilion in 1989. Maybe he was an early starter or just didn’t have very up to date consoles. Mystery aside, I love the particular bloopy sounds in “Level Up” and the fact that he realises that going full on dubstep in this case would just detract from it. I wish Sway had done a bit more with the specific RPG metaphor of the title (though some of his extended claims of fame do get a bit like level-grinding, I guess), but he is likeable and funny enough to make up for his lower invention and technique stats.
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Alfred Soto: “I’m a one-track mind goin’ the distance,” he promises. Perhaps.
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Brad Shoup: Sorry y’all, we already picked an Olympics song!
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Katherine St Asaph: As joyful as running aimlessly around some grove because you can’t move on before killing 124 elven raver-kings.
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Zach Lyon: I’m not sure which one is Sway and which one is Kelsey. More importantly, I’m not sure what separates the bland female hook singer from every other bland female hook singer or what separates the bland grime rapper from every other bland grime rapper. And looking at it through a different lens, I’m not entirely sure leveling up should be taken as a good thing.
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Jonathan Bogart: I’ll be damned — a “my life has changed so much now that I’m wealthy and famous” song with a modicum of thoughtfulness to it. And not Drakean self-pity either! Bonus!
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