I've been listening to this on repeat for the last two weeks, and I've got to say I haven't even approached tired of it yet. If you haven't heard of July Talk - and let's be honest, they're a Canadian indie rock band, you probably haven't - do yourself a favor and track them down. This song's my personal favorite, but Paper Girl, Guns + Ammunition, and Blood + Honey (what's with the plus signs, guys?) are all amazing, and well worth a look. As one internet commenter so eloquently put it, "It's basically a punk rock duet with Tom Waits and Judy Garland."
Their videos are all delightful as well, though admittedly more pure performance pieces than 'Blank Space'-esque narratives. And that's probably for the better; July Talk isn't writing about anything new. Sex, drugs, relationships spiraling out of control - it's all fairly totemic Rock-N-Roll stuff. Even the videos themselves are simple, shot in stark black and white with next to no artifice or directorial touches. But perhaps because of that simplicity, they all come off as that much more earnest, and that much more real. There's a sense that this isn't music for an arena, music that you like and share on Tumblr or Instagram. It's music for 1am, for a dive bar and a glass of whiskey and for maybe doing something a little bit illegal. And sometimes that's just what you need.
