You are currently reading our first ever Drunk Review! It was time to spice up the content on Music For The Misfits and together with good friends Marieke and Nikki we had a drink and a listen to Michiel Thompson’s new album ‘Music Serving As A Display Of My Emotional State In The Year 2020’ which was released on Insert Blank Records! Both Nikki and I were on the red wine while Marieke went for a Kopparberg cider.
To kick things off and have a bit of an idea of what we were getting ourselves into, we listened and watched the video for single ‘Eyes on the Road’, Nikki: “This song makes me feel like I can make music myself, there’s a lot of word-throwing and the whole video is just very fun. I can’t wait to see this live, can you imagine singing this at karaoke?!” Marieke: “Definitely something that looks like it was created during lockdown… It’s crazy and fun!” I found the experimental sound of Michiel rather emotionally charged mixed with some very strong lyrics. After this first experience we expect an eclectic and intense mix of sounds from the twelve track counting album.
The album starts off rather serene with single ‘Question Mark’ however all turns chaotic before we can take another sip of our drinks. “Not one to sing along with…”, ‘Fly On The Wall’ is another catchy song, and makes all three of us think of fun fairs and barrel organs. “This album is already a great mismatch of songs that are at times a bit… Half arsed, but it’s unconventional!” Which then turns into a questioning of what normal actually entails, and… What is music? But most importantly: why the fuck not?!
Number three on the album is ‘Water Me’, which is catchy as anything. “Singing in the shower… Feeling like a flower.” are some of its intriguing lyrics. Marieke: “This is my favourite on the album so far.” Nikki: “Where is the mosh pit?!” We continue with ‘Best Of You’, a poppy guitar-driven track with punky vocals and a generic ‘don’t give a shit’ vibe. Talking about intriguing lyrics: “This year never happened” is what we are currently all pretending! “This song actually sounds like 2020! I’m trying to figure out what he’s singing, but I’m just too distracted by the music…” What follows is 40 seconds of serious instrumentals featuring a melodica and what sounds like an apology, something like: “Here’s a breather. I’ll come back with more crazy songs later.”
‘Eyes On The Road’ reminds us of Talking Heads combined with boy band vibes and awesome choreos… Or we were possibly just imagining that. While listening to this for the second time, we were already singing and moving along. Marieke: “I can’t wait for the acoustic version of this.” We continue with the ambiguous sound of Michiel’s ‘Conspiracy Blues’, sounds exactly like we expected it to, throw in a flute solo and some electronic effects in the mix and you’ve got your ‘Conspiracy Blues’. What follows is a crazy interlude that sounds just like its title suspects, ‘Circus’ is 2020 in emotions! ‘The Past Is Where It’s At’ is a more conventional song that is slightly more toned down and with a refined punk rock sound, its ending is too abrupt for me but put that aside and you’ve got an existential crisis made fun!
“Oh, this was a big part of lockdown life!”… Can you guess what it is? It’s ‘Animal Crossing’! “It’s slightly out of tune but that’s deliberate… Right?” “So, are we listening to a ballad about animal crossing? It sounds a little off, just like 2020!” As you see we came to a lot of spiritual insights while listening to this album. Marieke: “The song ‘Animal Crossing’ has one of the best bass riffs I’ve ever heard!”, Nikki: “This album definitely won’t bore you. It’s making me really miss gigs…” Before we all delve into the miserable idea of wanting to go back to normal life, we continue with the next song… Which isn’t helping, at all. ‘Grief’ is an 80’s inspired track resembling LCD Soundsystem, but monotone. We’ve decided we want a remix!
Completely on topic we end the album with ‘Album Closer (Feat. Friends)’ and after having listened to the entire album we are listening with a slight feeling of confusion. “What just happened? Where has the time gone? Does any of this make sense? (It definitely doesn’t… But that’s okay)!” We wonder where such an unconventional yet fun and liberating album would fit in the modern musical landscape, because musicians like Michiel are hard to find. “He just went for it, let go of everything and made something he wanted to make! As a listener, you don’t know what to expect. It’s definitely an album you can enjoy from start to finish, and probably best with friends and a glass of wine too.”
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