The Dirty Projectors
Issue #33
Rise Above (Dead Oceans)
By Sam Scranton
Published: September 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
Jorge Luis Borges wrote a short story about a fictional author, Pierre Menard, who attempts to write Don Quixote. Menard doesn’t write a new version, or update the book, but he writes the exact same book that Miguel de Cervantes wrote. Borges argues that though the texts are identical, the context in which Menard’s Don Quixote was written makes it a new work deserving of its own interpretation.
Similarly, on Rise Above, Dave Longstreth, creative genius behind the Dirty Projectors, hopes to write Black Flag’s seminal 1981 release Damaged as an “original creative act.” There are points of disanalogy behind Menard’s Don Quixote and Longstreth’s Rise Above, namely that Rise Above sounds nothing like Damaged: intricate guitar patterns replace power chords; Prince and neo-soul embellishments replace Henry Rollins’ scream; tenderness replaces anger; song structures meander; words are rearranged, and some new ones added. But the driving force behind the two projects are identical: the desire to create something that already exists.
What separates Rise Above from your average cover album or blockbuster remake album is that Longstreth has made Black Flag’s lyrics his own. While writing this album, he didn’t listen to Damaged or refer to its lyrics; instead he relied on the creative and generative power of imperfect, selective, and malleable memory to provide skeletons of songs for him to flesh out.
The lyrics on Rise Above fit neatly into the Longstreth songbook. Longstreth’s most recent lyrics revolve around a short, poignant chorus of few words that act as an epigram that invites the listener to consider and investigate the words in many possible aspects. “Thirsty and Miserable” is performed as a down-tempo ballad with a typically repetitive Longstrethian chorus: “Miserable and thirsty / always wanting more.” Under the indelicate pen of another artist this would be an easy laugh: punk-rock song plus juvenile lyrics performed as a ballad equals ironic laughter. But Longstreth is much subtler than that. Sure there is humor and self-awareness, but there is also affection, joy, and visceral noise, which combine to create one of the most complex, beautiful, and exciting rock albums ever.
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more