SLOWCORE
sorry there's nothing to write home about / I still fear strangers, the passing faces like mute clock / with age grow more withdrawn / without
but the quiet dignity of the people I love holds me up
the unhappy couple next door who stayed together for the kids and will die together out of habit / I wonder if they still cuddle to warm bloodied winters
papa driving taxis / 12 hours a day, 6 days a week / he never complained / he didn't smile much either / mama always cooked / we used to watch snake documentaries together / he liked the anaconda ones / he was a big Steve Irwin fan / but there was often raised voices / beatings / vicious insults / we'd take shrapnel / hide upstairs
today I make my older sister Mehvish a cup of tea and we catch up on shenanigans / remember when's / laugh ourselves silly / it wasn't all bad / but we left suppressed sobs unsolved in childhood cold / you beat up my bully in mosque / I helped you with your english lit homework / that's why I still love Gatsby
little reassurances - thank you / see you soon / it's ok
just you smiling again / it's better when I make you laugh / I like when you get gassed and do that stupid dance / the other day when you said you'd die for us / I didn't say anything / but I heard you / if nothing else / I'll always listen / you know that don't you?
I'm not wrong to hope for perfect days but kindness is more certain
years ago working in the York Mercure / charm the elderly lady with too much luggage / be a good boy / help her to her room / be respectful / enjoy your stay / at lunch time eat alone and relish quiet
now it's the backend of winter, I'm annoyed that I have to keep trying / I carefully remove my flat cap / stare past / beyond / further still / wet steel eyes / the details that precipitate the fading of man
AQEEL PARVEZ:
MAXWELL NORMAN’S ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Teethe - Teethe (2020)
I’ve never seen the sky the same since road-tripping through Texas. Out on the howling plains around Dallas, and ringed by the scorched undulations of the Hill Country, all the blue and gray of the firmament stretches like a tired cat, long spines of clouds holding up each layer of the atmosphere. You can see the whole dome of everything. It makes perfect sense to me that slowcore band Teethe hail from the Lone Star State, seeing as their gently rambling sketches feel at once incidental as a tumbleweed and as expansive as the sky. Their self-titled debut—which remains their only full-length record, with a second coming this year—scratches a melancholic Southern itch deep in my soul. Individual songs really blur into each other here, and the 34-minute runtime makes playing the whole thing an easy proposition, but after falling asleep countless times to “Upside Down” and “On Everything,” I would recommend those tunes as a starting place if you need one. A beautiful cocoon of whispered voices and dreamy-eyed pedal steel.