One Eye Opener (The Great Dictators album) – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Great Dictators, photo courtesy the artists

“Creep For Life,” the final single from The Great Dictators’ new album One Eye Opener (released April 17, 2020 on Celebration Records) sounds like a warping collage of melodies and textures held together, oddly, by the vocals telling the story of a dysfunctional family, the deviously passive aggressive kind in which that dynamic rolls back and forth with everyone on the lookout and never really knowing where they stand with anyone. The kind of family dynamic of mutual abuse that goes unexamined and undiscussed for years because to admit to not being able to “deal” with it is to admit one’s shortcomings, leaving oneself vulnerable to becoming the family scapegoat that everyone else can pile on even when they’re fairly shitty to each other if the occasion presents itself. The song’s soundscapes is like the emotional feedback loop that one can ride out of the situation and it’s reminiscent of a more pop version of My Bloody Valentine’s “Loomer” from Loveless. Though, according to the band, the song is a bit of a tribute to the imaginative soundscapes of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson who passed away in 2018. The imagery that includes the line “This party is the worst party ever” is so poignant because it captures those awkward family gatherings, name the occasion, in which people seem to competitively snipe at each other. Fortunately, in being able to identify all of these shenanigans the song offers an exit which is often taking yourself out of the situation as often as possible because that kind of neuroses is only perpetuated when people participate without having any distance from that being the twisted norm and even if, when you make that move, you’re dubbed a terrible person by those choosing to be snared by that endless cycle of co-dependent abuse. Listen to “Creep For Life” on Soundcloud and connect with The Great Dictators at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/the-great-dictators
open.spotify.com/artist/5lLz1TtyX6e2LlUdbbAsJH
youtube.com/user/TheGreatDictators/videos
twitter.com/great_dictators
facebook.com/thegreatdictators
instagram.com/thegreatdictators

TheGreatDictators_KillingFields1_sm — The Great Dictators, photo courtesy the artists

The juxtaposition of black and white cultural artifacts of media yesteryear with rich, distorted synths and electronic beats in The Great Dictators’ video for “Killing Fields” is surprisingly effective in creating an otherworldly space to explore themes of modern anxieties. Humanity has been through periods of that seemed like the end of history or at least of the world as we have, collectively, known it. And all through those times people have had to live their lives and not put everything on hold even as they tangle with the possibility of their way of life coming to an end and the march of historical events right into their lives. The lived experience is not in chapters you can conveniently analyze from a temporal distance. Honorius seeing the Visigoths march into Rome, Paul von Hindenburg appointing Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany, the days leading up to the fall of Saigon and countless other points in human history when people made fateful decisions, faced their own destruction or the end of their civilization had mundane stuff they had to deal with. The Great Dictators aren’t saying at all that it’s all going to be okay, even though the upbeat rhythm and brooding pace has some nice pop hooks. They are showing solidarity with the mundanity of even the most dramatic periods in our history like the one we face now and to suggest that many of us, if not most of us, will make it through and have to pick up the pieces as best we can. Watch the video for “Killing Fields” on YouTube, follow The Great Dictators at the links below and look out for the band’s new full length One Eye Opener due out April 17 via Celebration Records.

Tag: One Eye Opener (The Great Dictators album)

“Creep For Life” by The Great Dictators Mirrors the Warped Dynamic of a Dysfunctional Family and Renders it Escapable

The Great Dictators’ Video For “Killing Fields” Showcases How Life Goes On Even When it Feels Like the End Times Are Upon Us