Young Enough, Joe

I think there might be a point when you can know too much about a band. I was thinking about this as I listened to Young Enough for the 63rd time and finished reading an interview with Eva Hendricks with a website called The Creative Independent, which is "a growing resource of emotional and practical guidance for creative people." There was lots of interesting insight into how an rock band could ever possible operate in today's day and age. There was also a feeling of, "I don't think I need to know this."

It almost ruins the kayfabe, to a certain extent. I want to believe that music exists as a higher form of art, that it is created solely for me, the listener, that it is specifically designed to make me feel emotions I wouldn't feel otherwise. To learn that, yes, to a certain extent Charly Bliss exists to make money, or at the very least cannot exist without money, is tantamount to pulling back the curtain. I don't want to know what's back there. I want the illusion to remain. I know it's an illusion, but I thought we all collectively decided to pretend anyway.

There's a lot of discussion about money, and Hendricks presents herself as someone who is making do with what little she and her bandmates have in the Big City. I don't doubt that this is true. But she also hails from Westport, Connecticut, where the average household income is $220k. I don't even think she is being disingenuous; I too was raised with privilege, and I too found myself taking advantage of the food pantries for off-campus students in college, even though my parents would've definitely given me money for food if I had asked them. It just seems weird to me that you'd have this big discussion about money and not once mention what base you were born on.

See, this is what I'm talking about. What does any of this have to do with my thoughts about Young Enough? Nothing, really. You can know too much about a band. I wish I didn't know anything about Charly Bliss before this week. I even wish I had never heard their debut album, Guppy. Well, no, I don't wish that, I love that album, but it would've been easier to hear Young Enough in 2019 if I was coming in fresh. There wouldn't have to be a comparison. I wouldn't have heard the distinct turn toward pop.

And if I didn't know anything about Charly Bliss, then I wouldn't know that this focus on making decidedly pop music was deliberate, and then we wouldn't have to have this stupid discussion yet again. What is pop? Blah blah blah. I mean, to my ears, the idea of "pop music" seems here to be used as a sort of preemptive excuse—"the production is crisper and we don't really sound all that much like a garage band anymore because we were trying to be a pop band, you see."

Not that any of this matters either, I'm just saying. Young Enough is definitely catchy, so if consciously making pop music is something they want to continue doing, then I'm cool with that. I think it just would have been easier if I had started here and then discovered the more Weezer-inspired stuff from a couple years earlier. And, alternatively, it definitely would have been easier if I didn't have to here the word "pop" and immediately put my guard up, and start asking questions like "should I like this?" and "is it cool to like this still?" and "then why is this technically lumped into the same genre of Meghan Trainor?" and so on. All stupid questions that I'm being forced to propose due to the genre tag that Charly Bliss gave themselves.

"How do you feel about this review so far?" asks my therapist.

"Not very good," I respond.

"Tell me more about that."

"I really like this album, and the review that I have so far makes it seem like I don't."

"Why do you think you'd write a negative review for an album you think positively about?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Sigh... I guess it's just something that happens."

"Tell me about your writing process."

"I can tell you that sometimes, when I don't know what to write, I just sit in front of a computer and start typing."

"Do you find that those writing exercises are beneficial?"

"Not really! Look what is happening here!"

"What do you think that says about you, that freeform typing results in words and paragraphs that are more negative than you may have originally intended?"

"I think it says something about how snarky writing and pessimism come more easily to me than positive thinking and constructive criticism."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with this, Joe. I just think we should use this space to explore ways in which you can write the way in which you want to write. I want you to practice ways in which you can feel good about your music criticism."

"Okay."

"Do you want to practice now?"

"We might as well."

"Tell me more about this album. What is something you really like about Charly Bliss's Young Enough?"

"It's catchy."

"Be more specific. I only ask this because you've used the word 'catchy' in dismissive terms in past sessions. What specifically about this is catchy?"

"I mean, every song, pretty much."

"So you're saying that 'catchy' is a good thing, in this case."

"For the most part."

"For the most part?"

"It was definitely a little off-putting at first, back in 2019, and occasionally now."

"Tell me more about this. I notice that you used the word 'pop' a few times in your first draft of your review. I know that you have certain feelings about that word. What are your feelings now, as they relate to Charly Bliss?"

"It's... probably shorthand for 'too simple,' I guess. Kinda like a defense mechanism."

"You're saying that 'simple' is bad?"

"Sometimes."

"And you're saying that Young Enough is too simple?"

"Yes... well, no. I don't know. Okay, I get your point. I could see an argument in the other direction. I do recall that thing that Eva Hendricks said about 'Chatroom.'"

"What did she say?"

"How it was about sexual assault, how a previous boyfriend had sexually assaulted her, and how she was insistent that 'Chatroom' be this shiny pop song anyway."

"Why do you think she made that decision?"

"Pop music as a mask, I guess. Or as a soft landing when talking about a hard subject."

"And would you consider this 'simple'?"

"Absolutely not."

"So there are exceptions."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Tell me more about Eva Hendricks."

"Like her vocals?"

"Yes."

"I really like the vocals. Always have."

"Do you feel like your peers feel the same way?"

"I know that some people have a problem with them, like they are too high or sugary or whatever. I've heard that opinion in my household in the past. I didn't get the sense that that problem existed this week, though. For anyone."

"Give power to Hendricks's words."

"That's right. She has said in the past something along the lines of criticisms of her voice seeming, to her, like sexism, that a man would not receive any complaints about vocals being 'too low' in the same way that she has received complaints for her vocals being 'too high.' If I recall correctly."

"How do you feel about this in the context of our 'too simple' discussion? Try to remember our work with Freudian theory."

"I see what you're saying. That maybe, despite the fact that I've been a fan of Charly Bliss since 2017, that maybe subconsciously the twee-sounding vocals are informing my opinion that this music is more 'basic' than other music, when really it's not."

"Exactly."

"And that maybe I should just shut my goddamn trap before I make myself look even more stupid in the review."

"Well, no, I would never advocate for that, Joe. I hope you consider this a safe space to explore some of these ideas about yourself."

"Thanks. I do appreciate that. I just worry that, even equipped with this self-reflection, I still won't be able to write an adequate review about Young Enough."

"I have two suggestions for that."

"I'm all ears."

"First, you can feel free to 'transcribe' this conversation to the best of your memory, if you'd like. That might help to get some of your ideas down on the page."

"Thanks. I'll probably do that. Writing my review on the 67 bus after getting multiple cavities filled at the dentist was obviously not working out very well."

"Second, I think that it's helpful to continue to explore your feelings about yourself, because those feelings pretty clearly inform your opinion about this album, and about music in general. If you're attempting to write a review, then it's necessary to talk about how you feel. And if that's not a good reason to be in therapy, then I don't know what is."

"Okay, how should I go about it, then?"

"Tell me about the opening moments of Young Enough."

"The song 'Blown to Bits'?"

"Yes."

"I mean... it's a stunner."

"In what ways?"

"It just feels epic in ways I'm struggling to describe."

"Try anyway."

"It's like... there's this like constant tension building throughout the song. Hendricks is naming all these pedestrian scenarios—a walk home, Dad watching baseball, a shitty reality show—and then names this feeling that pervades it all, this sort of existential dread that hangs over every moment. It's really thrilling."

"Thrilling how?"

"Well, one, the music keeps building higher and higher, and never quite breaks, so you're left hanging with that dread. And two, I dunno, it's just thrilling to hear this existential dread in a catchy song."

"Tell me more about this."

"I feel that dread sometimes. Maybe that's why I'm drawn to this song. I get it. It feel validating to start an album like this."

"Does that feeling ever come back throughout the rest of Young Enough?"

"Not really. Maybe the title track. But otherwise, there's a lot of pretty normal negative emotions that one might feel in their 20s. Romance, heartbreak, credit card theft."

"More pedestrian scenarios."

"I... yeah, I guess so."

"The same type of pedestrian scenarios described in 'Blown to Bits'?"

"Ah, okay, I see where you're going with this."

"Go ahead."

"You're saying that Young Enough is not, in fact, 'too simple,' because the existential dread still hangs over ever song, but Charly Bliss are just too good at masking it all behind the pop music? That it was just me who was too stupid to realize it? That we're all just trying to mask some type of pain, and Charly Bliss are so good at capturing that attempt at masking that I couldn't even see it until now?"

"Is that what you are saying?"

"I think so."

"It sounds like that's what you're saying."

"I am, yeah. But I think also that that makes me seem like I'm taking this all a little too seriously."

"Tell me more about 'too seriously.'"

"We're just talking about an album review here. I feel like there's a way to take this too seriously."

"I don't think there's a wrong way to write an album review, as long as what you're writing is staying true to yourself and what you actually think about the album."

"Fair enough."

"Do you care that much about Charly Bliss?"

"Yes and no. I want to do right by them, because I like the music a lot. But I also don't necessarily think that this particular album warranted me going to the therapist to discuss it."

"I disagree. I thought today's session was helpful."

"But if I look back over the transcript for today, am I really going to think that I was able to portray Young Enough in a positive light like I originally wanted to and failed at? Or did I fall into the same old patterns?"

"There's still room to improve, Joe. And we have all the time in the world. Well, not today, because our session is over, I'm sorry to say. But next week, let's meet up here again and talk about what you worked on after this session. Let's really try to work on getting your thoughts together before sitting down to write a review. If you like the album, then write that. If you have mixed feelings, then, well, I guess you can always bring your first draft to me and I can look it over."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Okay, see you next week. Be safe getting home."

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5