The best way to alienate yourself at a party is to claim you love “pop” music. Why? Because the simple mention of the word “pop” in today’s musical setting means you like Celine Dion, the Backstreet Boys, and Paula Cole. Which isn’t too far from the truth, considering the aforementioned acts do make up the genre’s hardest hitters these days. However, it is a damn shame that the genre has sunken so low. As pitiful as it is, pathetic whiners (like the three “performers” I mentioned… now I’ve gotta wash my mouth out with soap) with absolutely no comprehension of taste, have managed to drain pop music of its essence, and instead use its sugar-coated surface to rise to the top of the charts. Pop, with all its glorious twists and turns, aches and pains, layers and innards, has been enslaved by the mainstream and regurgitated into mindless dribble. Gone is the breathtaking musical poetry of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, and in its place (and making shitloads of money off idiots) is the garbage we so stupidly call “pop” today. Hell, if someone I didn’t know told me they liked “pop” music now, I’d probably spit in their face, too.
…and so we prayed for the dawn of a new era. And for once, our prayers were answered. The answer first arrived in the form of Jellyfish in the early ’90s, kicking and screaming and bringing beauty back to pop music. However, “only the good die young,” as Jellyfish quickly dissolved after two albums. While the pop world continued to rot after that (OK, so maybe Ben Folds Five, Rufus Wainwright, and Tori Amos have helped keep a part of it Godlike), the smarter audiences who paid enough attention realized the Jellyfish legacy was not yet over. They waited and waited, hoping that one day a new vision would be realized by one (or everyone) of the former Jellyfish members. Finally, it happened. Jason Falkner, a former Jellyfish, re-emerged with Presents Author Unknown in ’96, making just enough waves for his second punch-in-the-face, Can You Still Feel? to be released. Co-produced by Nigel Godrich (you might know him from another project he did called Radiohead), Can You Still Feel? is a 40-minute walk in the Garden of Eden where everything is serenely simple yet filled with inexhaustible possibilities. The dual existence of pure sing-along melodies and mind-bending atmospheres penetrates your pores, heartbreak seeps from the words, but also delivers pregnant literary prose. Unlike his contemporary counterparts, Jason Falkner is not content with shallow gimmicks and especially not poor songwriting. He gives listeners all the sugar that pop music is known for, and a healthy dose of vegetables in the form of experimentations. He makes the songs bounce, whisper, cry, yell, and overall live. With the method in which he approaches dynamics, someone should hire him as an instructor to teach the rest of the world how to write.
As not-braindead music lovers thank the powers above for answering their prayers, they hang on tightly to the ray of light in this tomb known as “pop” – Jason Falkner, with Can You Still Feel?, has proven himself to be the messiah of a genre that desperately needs him.
