“Empty Days” (Parts song) – Queen City Sounds and Art

Parts1_crop — Parts, photo courtesy the artists

The angular guitar line and rhythm of “Empty Days” by Parts when coupled with the psychedelic synth swells is a bit reminiscent of Radiohead circa “Paranoid Android” but with a funky soulfulness that serves to give the song at times a softer touch. The contrasts help to highlight the song’s lyrics about the modern era in which increasing amounts of our time is demanded in order to survive and even if you’re one of the lucky few to enjoy the benefits of being affluent, you, like everyone else, is bombarded with a lot of useless information competing for your attention and real estate in your psyche. Over half a century ago the Rolling Stones sang something about “a lot of useless information trying to fire [your] imagination” and that’s nothing compared to now when your data is mined and fed back to you through an algorithmic analysis of preferences intended to infiltrate your life and and lifestyle by making what the company offers what it is you desire, streamlining your experience in line with what makes profits easiest and most “cost effective.” A lot of the world is processed for you mediated through your phone screen or elsewhere and yet everyone deep down knows this is a stunted and inauthentic existence even if it seems normal and inevitable now. People crave meaning in their lives much more so than the empty calorie experiences and entertainment that is very often offered. This song bemoans a steady diet of mediocrity and horror in order to distract us from turning over the order of things that perpetuates that cycle. Listen to “Empty Days” on Soundcloud and follow Parts at the links below.