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A freak to us is someone whos unique, nonconforming, and continues to redefine norms.
Charlie Harding:Those are some freaky metaphors.
Reanna Cruz:Quite freaky.
Since the early days of her career, she has talked about nasty things on songs.
And while disease was already discussed on Bad Romance, this is next level.
You know, what have we heard from Gaga recently?
Weve had herFolie a Deuxtie-in album,Harlequin,which was kind of old-school cabaret-style torch songs.
:Wait, the band?
I thought you were making a joke, cause Gaga also has a song called The Cure.
Then the verse drops.
:Oh my God.
Nate, youre so right.
:Notexactly, but very reminiscent.
I just had to point that out.
Now that thats out of the way … We have already established the theme of this song.
Its getting darker and darker.
Noid, Tyler, the Creator
R.C.
I want to focus on the albums lead single, Noid.
You have this chorus singing the word paranoid over and over and over again.
The song obviously wears its themes on its sleeve.
:I feel like this paranoid feeling is created through this heavy electric guitar riff thatda dum.
Every time it hits, it comes in at a different place in the bar.
You cant anticipate it.
Its constantly moving around.
:I love that guitar riff.
Its to use the F bomb again freaky.
Its actually a sample from a Zambian rock song: Nizakupanga Ngozi, by Ngozi Family.
I thought it sounded like Paranoid.
:Yeah, similarly, I thought the sample sounded like Black Sabbaths War Pigs.
:Tyler is such a singular artist in this current era.
He has these songs that are kind of out there and dark.
He doesnt always stick in one genre in a clear way.
And yet he seems to be always rewarded for his almost outsider approach to pop.
It kind of just keeps going over this, like, rising synthesizer and percussion rhythm.
It gives that physical feeling like Tyler is actively running as hes rapping.
R.C.:Exactly.
:Oh, this is freaky.
:Hes always leaned into the freaky.
Alone, The Cure
R.C.
:You know who else has created dark meditations on the perils of fame?
:The final freak in our trilogy, Robert Smith.
:The Cure are known for atmospheric sounds and introspective lyrics about joy, love, and heartbreak.
But also isolation and despair.
:These songs have a lot of emotional complexity to them.
They are whole universes unto themselves.
:Were going to focus on Alone, the lead single from their new album.
The song puts me in a state of deep despair these haunting strings and ghostly pianos and synthesizers.
It sounds like were in a vacuum chamber of droning, distorted guitars.
:First song in almost decades and thats what you open with.
:It feels like were pondering some big questions about mortality, our place in the world.
He goes on to ask about what has happened to our hopes.
:Its uncanny how similar that vocal sounds to all the Cure tracks from the 70s and 80s.
And I feel like he accomplishes this feeling of suspended animation.
Are we achieving our hopes and dreams?
By creating a non-resolving chord progression that seemingly never ends.
The whole thing just kinda hangs.
Yet Im concerned that we havent delivered on our promise of this trilogy of freaks.
Is this song freaky?
R.C.:Mmm.
:My gosh, its so freaky.
Its like contemplating mortality and what the future is gonna be.
All our hopes and dreams are out the window.
The rest of this album talks about war and the state of the world.
It also does offer some hints of love and promise, uh, here and there.
But, its mostly with dealing with death, despair, the fear of the unknown.
Thats freaky to me.
We came, we saw, we freaked.
