Colleen Green’s Extreme Deadpan
Still don’t have a ton of time for this but did want to brush up on the new Colleen Green album which has spent a decent amount of time in my car’s CD player.
Colleen Green kinda just writes simple tunes about her opinions about stuff. She finds being human an increasingly pointless task, doesn’t want to drive on the highway. She doesn’t seek wellness, she wants to do things that are bad for her. TV is cool (duh) but paying attention is impossible. Is it ironic? Probably. Deadpan? That’s a better word for it.
Her latest album Cool stretches out a bit more. Guitar lines repeat and meander. Songs drone on, playing with the lyrical material more. Her endlessly cool affect is occasionally shed for borderline earnest belting. I Want To Grow Up felt intentionally rudimentary to great effect, capturing the weird aura of adult birthdays, the dull celebratory nature of surviving another year without the ‘rents, and those regressive nights of kicking your feet up to watch Seinfeld (or some other bullshit).
Cool puts on the musical auteur hat a bit more. When she writes about the highway she wants to put you there—layered vocals paint a cinematic picture of a dreary, endless ride. You could probably write some shit about how subversive it all is, but that’s for the nerds—I’m just in the corner laughing about the decision to putting “it’s nice to be nice” right before the song pondering how much to love one’s husband. “Natural Chorus” is a clear highlight. Never would I imagine a Collen Greenified version of “your voice is music to my ears,” but she found a way. Gorgeous open space crashes into some riffs that dive headfirst into retro noodling. I reckon it’s more about songwriting than some love interest, but who’s to say? In the end, how serious she is will never be clear. Does this lyric come with a wink? Who’s to say? It’s wearing sunglasses.
-Donovan Burtan