The message here is almost a distraction. I understand that a lot of my misgivings come from my own preoccupations with certain socio-political subjects in the context of music and blogging and the intertwining of all three. But this is my review, and I'm responding to what I hear, and I hear something that intrigues me, and something that makes me roll my eyes, and a whole lot of hip hop that sounds like pop in that it's catchy, which might devalue the hip hop-ness of it slightly but probably in negligible ways.
The intrigue: the quick interlude/skit of "Hey, Hi." I haven't been this interested in a non-musical interlude since the quacking chicken head thing. First, I like the implicit acknowledgement that Erez's audience is going to skew younger, in that she felt the need to "congratulate" her young audience in listening to a little more than 20 minutes of music. The kids' attention spans are shot to shit! They're adding "Dumb" to playlists, and ignoring the rest! Second, I like that the mirror is held up to me when she calls me a motherfucker and implores me to buy the album. She's saying that she earns fractions of pennies on the dollar from the artless Spotify machine. She doesn't even realize that there are freaks out here who illegally downloaded the mp3s and are listening on bootleg iPods. It's a subject I think about a lot (and weirdly find myself explaining to a lot of people these days), and it was cool to be forced to consider my own actions, especially in such an abrasive way. This isn't boring.
Third, I like the idea that Noga Erez is afraid that music is going to be created entirely by computers in fifteen years. It's interesting because that is a legitimate fear! Perhaps it won't ever get to the point where humans are completely removed from the equation, but think about all the bullshit Spotify is pulling now, with fake artists creative facsimile muzak for your algorithmic pleasure. Maybe by 2040, Gen Alpha Whatever is giving into their overlords and accepting the artless machinations of AI-created commercial products. But it's also interesting because I actually have faith in music! The tech fascists are going to attempt to stuff artificial intelligence down our throats, and it's gonna get ugly... but human music survives. It's too important to completely disappear. Look at us, right now. A small group of friends, huddled around an album, considering its beauty, its flaws, its value, its art. I think our flame will diminish, but I don't think it'll ever be extinguished completely.
Rolling my eyes: "PC People" is a song about a subject that I SURELY have not written about enough on this blog. Cancellation! Yeah! We're back, baby! I'm writing about my thoughts on whether cancel culture exists! Wow! Thanks for having me!
This is actually a really interesting case, mostly because it wraps in global-stage factors that I can't seem to bring myself to fully understand, as well as a sort of follow-up to a concern that was brought up in the comment section even before y'all received that Sunday morning email about the album. I didn't think I was going to add to my thoughts on the subject, but that was before I heard "PC People," which seems a little cocky, a little like placing your hand on the stove and being upset that you got burned.
Here's how I interpret the message in "PC People"—Noga Erez is making the case that we should be able to say whatever we want, and that people who try to police the use of language are the ones at fault when someone says something that you might disagree with. It's an argument that's always existed, and it's one that I typically hear in the mouths of jabronis who fear that there will be repercussions for their own actions. Erez even calls herself "Louis C.K." in the song's lyrics, which makes things easy, because that creep is my go-to example for this shit. That man, in the aftermath of being found out that he was being sexually abusive in ways that involved power imbalances, has rebuilt his brand on the idea of "being cancelled." Now people who don't want to think about him jerking off in front of women who by no means gave consent to witness him jerking off, but would instead just like to sit in their comfy theater chairs and listen to some ribald jokes from an angry man who has faced close to zero long-term consequences, and pretend that sexual abuse is not a concern and that it'll all just be easier if we ignore it when it happens, those people get to hear Louis C.K. yell about being cancelled! As he yells about being cancelled to a sold-out crowd!
Cancel culture doesn't exist, at least not in the way that I would've hoped that it might. Those who deserve (in my opinion, of course) to be "cancelled" rarely are. Those who ideologically agree with me get to stand next to me with their hands in their pockets while Kevin Spacey is cleared of all charges. We get to hear about Morgan Wallen forever, a kid racist enough that, not only is he decidedly not cancelled because of his racism, it actually galvanized the conservatives enough to bring this racist great riches and popularity and social capital. Performing an action that, in my mind, should cause what we as a society call "cancellation," instead mostly inspires anti-woke inbreds to rally around the allegedly cancelled individual. Our president should be in jail, but instead won the popular vote. Cancel culture does not exist.
Except when it's conservatives who want someone cancelled, of course. In which case, there are consequences. But the less said about that, the better, since, ya know, I don't want Puke on Your Birthday CANCELLED by the ANTI-WOKE TERRORISTS.
Okay, so here's Noga Erez. There is nothing about her actions or history or even personal opinions that could reasonably cause anyone to want her to be cancelled (let alone actually be cancelled, which, again, isn't a thing). Which means that, technically, we're all in agreement with what she's saying in "PC People," which is: "I will not be cancelled." She's basically saying that she should be able to do or say whatever she wants, and regardless of whatever she chooses to do, that it shouldn't affect her ability to create art (or "art," depending on how you feel about a Bad Bunny-lite song in which she asks Kendrick Lamar to fuck her in her car).
Sure, fine, whatever. Yes, let's give Noga Erez the benefit of the doubt. We should all be able to say whatever we want, without consequence. This isn't fucking Disney, this is the real world. People say things that are designed to offend, but that's okay. Our actions don't matter. What we say doesn't matter. Just listen to the song. Buy the album, motherfucker. It's catchy, it's made by a human, who gives a shit?
Here's the rub. If you're gonna claim that you should be able to say whatever you want without consequence, then you can't be upset when someone else say something to you that upsets you. This is the missing piece that anti-PC-culture people usually forget. If we're gonna have a big chuckle about ROUSSO calling Erez by homophobic and anti-Semitic terms (which, haha, yes, ROUSSO is Erez's husband, jokes on us I guess!!), and we're gonna all agree that Noga Erez should not be held responsible for any of her words or actions that she has ever said or could ever say, then we're also going to have to agree that Noga Erez can't do anything about anyone saying anything that offends her, including: "We don't want to listen to or give money to Noga Erez."
This is not me making the case for or against cultural boycotts. I don't have a right to do that, because I am uninformed. I have great empathy for those who find that they are currently living in a warzone, and understand that the idea of someone being told that they shouldn't be able to perform their art due to the simple fact that they live in that warzone is questionable. I'm not condoning anything here. I'm just processing all of the information that Noga Erez has provided for me through my own fucked-up brain and its flawed design. The subject that gets me is people complaining about being cancelled. Hearing that word is like nails on a chalkboard to me. And my default reaction is, when you claim you are "being cancelled," that you are absolutely not being cancelled. Because this is what non-cancelled people claim all the time. We're listening to The Vandalist in Record Club. I'm sitting here and listening to it and enjoying it. Do you think I, of all people, would be doing that, if Noga Erez was "cancelled"?
Again: this is not me expressing a lack of empathy for anyone. This is me expanding on a pet peeve of mine, unnecessarily. It's my fatal flaw.
Despite the unwieldy word count on just this one subject, I'll say that the micro-hypocrisy does not diminish my generally positive feelings about The Vandalist, which is why I earmarked that section as "rolling my eyes," and not, I dunno, "fuck Noga Erez" or whatever. "PC People" would've irked me even without Erez's statement about being boycotted, but after that shit was flipped on her, I hate "PC People" even more, and wish that it just wasn't on here, so that I could've written 2000 words about the pronunciation of the word "yuck" in "Hey, Hi" instead.
As always, I'll concede that anything that makes me feel strongly in either direction is ultimately worth my time (within the realm of art and criticism, anyway). It would be one thing to say "hey, this album is pretty good, because it's catchy," which is pretty boring. It's another to say "I fucking hate this one goddamn song and I think Noga Erez is a fucking heel for making it," but then to have to grapple with the idea of liking the rest of the album through and around that annoyance. It really is catchy, is the thing.
"Sad Generation, Happy Pictures" is a catchy song. That's probably been the one in my head all week. And also gives me a decent amount to think about, to be honest. The premise of the song is that people of a certain age are generally sad, but that the photos we take are disingenuous, since we require smiles in said photos, and eventually that's going to give the wrong impression of young people during this specific time period. It's a call to find out what's real! To feel truth! To beware of false idols on social media! Which makes it even harder to swallow "PC People," which feels like Erez purposefully forgoing that truth in favor of cocky fronting.
But it's catchy. It's catchy here in this song, and others. Noga Erez does a lot better when she's emulating M.I.A. than when she's emulating Billie Eilish (I'm talking musically, and not politically, since of course Noga Erez would find a lot in common re: wokeness/cancellation with trump supporter M.I.A., and probably even trump himself). The genre of "pop rap" scares me, but that's usually because most rap music on the pop charts dabbles in boring trap bullshit, and none of that's here. This is pop music first, with hip hop delivery and charisma. I think it's an intriguing album, and one that will definitely keep Noga Erez going for a few more years. I'd listen to whatever she has up her sleeve next out of pure curiosity alone.
Assuming she manages to not get cancelled.
GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5
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