“How To Feel” (Useless Cities song) – Queen City Sounds and Art

UselessCities7_crop — Useless Cities, photo courtesy the artists

Before the release of “How To Feel,” Useless Cities wrote a string of captivating, ethereal post-punk-flavored songs. The new single, though, brings into the band’s oeuvre an edge and an urgency that befits the subject of the song. The piano melody and rhythmic guitar riff work in tandem to create an expressive dynamic that captures the mood of resisting the kind of subtle oppression outlined in the song. The lyric, “They’ll build you, they’ll build your hopes too” goes a bit beyond simply stating how a person or a culture will suggest or even insist how you feel and the proper feelings to express and the ways of expressing them. But we all naturally rebel against being so straightjacketed even when we comply with unspoken social rules. The myth is that with modern culture we’ve risen above such things but anyone that lives in the real world can attest, especially now when our lives are more circumscribed and channeled into outlets of expression, the struggle for personal liberation even at the level of our dreams and aspirations that are authentically our own has never ended. Musically the song might loosely be called post-punk but like many modern bands, Useless Cities have gone beyond the stylistic limitations such a term might imply. Listen to “How To Feel” on Soundcloud and follow Useless Cities at the links provided.