Hegemony of genre

Katsushika_Hokusai_(1760-1849),_Chrysanten_met_honingbijWandering-in-the-night songs about: dancefloor flaneurs. Be Apart has a deceptive title, because it implies separation, but the way Aaron Maine sings the chorus—“I want to be a part/of it all”—shows a yearning for belonging. And the way the song moves too, the mood of it, sounds more like someone aiming to make a connection. “I will go out tonight,” Maine sings in the first verse, and it’s all that: a searching hope that this night will be the night; that you’ll meet some people who’ll make you feel happy that you took a chance and left your place; that you’ll feel content to be yourself. And the music reflects that, to an extent, with its buoyant synths and percussion (which gives way at the end to a kind of ambiguous drone—a queasy end to the night, maybe).[BUY Pool]

Sea-dark wine

The bell on the quay