there is no such thing as

If I could write a book, preferably an escapist novel, this particular chapter would end somewhere with a loony tune or two Emmy The Great performed last night that made more sense than they really should. Emmy’s knack for quaint melancholy and her easy confidence on stage make the songs sound like wobbly faithful daydreams. A bit more about those two songs where her pop sensibility really shines through in the wild blazing nighttime. “MIA” pulled me in at first with the sheer simplicity of its central melody, slightly jaded but very pretty. The tweeness subsides upon subsequent listens and then the tragicomic ambiguities of Emmy’s lyrics, which she delivers in an almost happenstance manner, got to me. The lingering feel of the song, kinda like the dying flames of some button-down romanticism, is enigmatic and lovely. “Easter Parade” is, similarly, heartbreaking folksong stuff and more directly so, and seems to be addressing some manageable neurosis rather than getting tangled in needless metaphors – a sudden rush of warmth when I heard sing this one perhaps, never mind my reservations about such feelings.