s / s / s (Sufjan Stevens, Serengeti & Son Lux)
by Chris Hess
We had it good, didn’t we?
We had it good, didn’t we?
Didn’t we?
The questions we ask ourselves so much. The questions that become threads running thru seasons. Thru creations. Without even asking they beg themselves under what we’re spitting.
We’ve got it good, don’t we?
We’ve got it good, don’t we?
Don’t we?
s / s / s
Stylized band names. This trio is Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, and Serengeti: indie hero, the critical ear’s conversational trump card, and the Chicago MC that everyone will now claim to have loved before s / s / s.
Beak & Claw
Their collaborative EP that came together almost by accident. All their fingerprints are all over it, of course. Serengeti is a smart and clever lyricist. He doesn’t set the mic on fire, because it seems like he doesn’t want to. He sits it in a chair and makes it listen. Stevens’ Age Of Adz-esque production and vocal highlights. Son Lux’s smooth growl and cosmos amidst the sporadic cadence of the beats familiar to all three.
The 4-song EP takes you through flashes of picture. Candid photographs. The emotion is raw enough to remind this person of reading the accounts of family in East Of Eden. Grainy pictures thrown quickly on a screen. Harshly drawn in, melting into a refrain of starting over with a bit of redemption in mind. Back and forth. The figuring out. Retrospect...always in retrospect. Let’s exchange formalities. Haven’t seen you in so long! Things are great(?). Keeping this up as fast as I can until it’s over. Then we feel exhausted. Evening long conversations and the next morning in the shower—hungover from posturing, from dancing to the beat that feels real nice. And memories. Running into memories. Dancing hard to memories...until we’re back. Doing dope too much.
I’m analyzing this album.
I’m analyzing this album?
Am I?
East Of Eden? Who does this guy think he is?
Without even asking they beg themselves.
[Beak & Claw is highly recommended. Buy & listen at http://anticon.bandcamp.com/album/beak-claw]
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The Waking is an online literary magazine and a part of the Ruminate creative community that houses high-quality literary writing about what it’s like to be human. We are interested in short-form prose and image-text hybrid work. This art can be beautiful, it can be strange, we just ask that it feels true.