Rayon – Shopping
Rayon’s most recent lineup, which includes members of Sun Atoms, Yuvees, Pastilla, and Martha Stax, mixes their new songs with a powerful collaborative force. Recorded on wet weekends in a garage studio full of old reel-to-reel tape machines, half-functional tube amps, and British motorcycles, the sessions were documented in 1/2″ analog tape. The ultimate result is a warm, lush tone that combines roughness with beauty. “Shopping” is a song about consumerism and travel written from the perspective of a regular traveler and shopper. The music begins with vibrant, melodic guitars that create an attractive rhythmic basis. When the vocals appear at 0:52, the song takes on an ethereal, hazy vibe that contrasts dramatically with the concrete, non-dreamy mood of the words. Shoegaze characteristics appear gradually throughout the piece, including hazy guitar layers, atmospheric waves, and a little psychedelic color that enhances the song’s mood without sacrificing melodic purity. Lyrically, “Shopping” uses strange and comic pictures to emphasize the confusion and silliness of modern desire. Lines like “He’s a bird / She’s a plane / It’s enough to make you insane” represent the crushing speed of a world full of endless desires. The narrator’s basic but telling desires, “I want to go to the store / All inclusive / I want to go to the beach,” define the dual appetites of modern life: purchasing goods and escaping somewhere else. Shopping becomes both a physical action and a metaphor for attempting to bridge emotional or spiritual gaps through consuming. “Shopping” combines soft indie sounds and sharp lyrical humor, resulting in a track that is (musically) dreamy and (in terms of lyrics) pragmatic. It’s one of those songs that makes you want to “move” while simultaneously rethinking your next purchase.
Photo Credit: photo by Eric Sabatino
https://missrayon.bandcamp.com/
