5. Gowns – Red State
This album is a reoccurring theme of spiritual stream of consciousness. I’m a big fan of EMA. I don’t know how to talk about this one.
It came out at a time when blending folk and electronic tones was a fascinating new thing. Does this album hit that sort of nostalgia for you? It’s also interesting that Erika uses spoken word.
Yeah, and she’s so good. That’s a big part of it. I think what I love about it is, if you hear the Twin Peaks theme song, you’re immediately transported to where you first saw it. You get that whole mood right away. This album is almost like fantasy and world-building. Whenever I hear any of the songs from it, I immediately phase into when I first heard it. It’s so heavy with mood and imagery that it’s unavoidable. Whenever I hear one of those songs, I go there, even if my actual surroundings are very different than that.
I’m a music nerd, but I’m not like other legit music nerds. I just went with sounds that I liked. I didn’t study everything. The same with poetry, I don’t know enough to talk about it in a bookish, smart way, I just know what I’ve read and liked. What feels good. I kind of like that there’s so much thoughtfulness in these lyrics. It’s not just nature rhymes.
