The point of music is to express the inner feelings of the soul, and to reflect on the point of existence in all its forms. It is breathtaking, moving, deep, and should move the soul to enormous heights and saddening lows. Whether the music be experimental or more traditional, the point of the music is to connect with the artist’s emotional intent.
Still House Plants seems to fundamentally misunderstand this fact.
Still House Plants is an experimental musical group stationed in Glasgow. They released their third studio album “If I don’t make it, I love u” on Apr 12, 2024, produced by Bison Records. The album was met with generally good reception, especially in the UK and other European countries. Critics are saying that it is the band’s best album yet and praising it as a masterful exploration of experimental music. I beg to differ.
The instruments sound fine. For an experimental album, the instruments aren’t very inventive. The guitar is a little bit obnoxious, having a reverberation effect that is completely unnecessary, but it’s at least somewhat tolerable. There are some traces of a piano in places that have a very good sound and an interesting tune, but all the other obnoxious parts cover it up and you have to strain to hear it. The vocals, on the other hand, are atrocious. The lyrics that come out of the mouth of lead Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach are muddled and unintelligible. No one online has yet to provide complete lyrics for all the songs, and you will notice that the songs that do not have lyrics attached to them are the ones with the most severely muddy lyrics.
Part of this is the clunky writing, with no rhythm in it whatsoever, but the mixing of the tracks is also poorly done. These problems are evident by the very first track, M M M. The six minutes drag on in a confused, complicated mess, never changing, never becoming more intense or more involved, aimlessly pushing its way through the end. And it gets a whole lot worse.
The song titled “MORE BOY,” (which I believe reflects some aspects of teenage angst, based on the few lyrics I could make out), features an unfocused beat and guitar beneath a man’s wailing voice.”Silver grit passes thru my teeth” is a jarring song that has a lot of interesting ideas about how real love isn’t really as romantic as society makes it out to be, but any meaningful commentary is bogged down by a messy structure and a lack of acceleration. There’s no climax. It just drones on for five and a half minutes before it unceremoniously ends.
If just one of these songs had these problems, that might be enough. But the songs are all this bad, and it goes on throughout the whole album. The same problems persist throughout. There is no variation in tempo or style, and barely any changes in topic. It feels less like one cohesive album and more like one long, forty-five minute train wreck.
If I had to choose one track that I felt was somewhat redeemable, it would be “Headlight.” This song has a good melody and some decent lyrics that are slightly less shallow than the other tracks. The voice is still an annoying wail, but at least this song is shorter. It makes the very smart choice that many of these other songs needed to take, which is to not overstay their welcome. “Headlight” says what it wants to say quickly and promptly, and then it’s over.
My opinions on this album might make it seem like I hate experimental music. In reality, I adore it. I believe wholeheartedly that this rough, broad and complicated genre serves to pose questions about the nature of society and provide commentary on music that more mainstream music cannot. Some of my favorite albums, including a lot of contemporary classical music, are experimental. With more popular artists, think of Depeche Mode’s “Exciter,” an album with very few instruments per song, and with unusual lyrics and arrangements. What is different about “Exciter” and “If I don’t make it, I love u” is that the first one provides clear lyrics with ambiguous music, allowing for the reader to seriously contemplate what the singers are singing about.
Experimental music is experimental because it has something interesting to present in a brand new way. It’s not a means to an end. Still House Plants don’t seem to get that. The point of experimental music is not just being different. It isn’t a means to an end. The unorthodox techniques are supposed to convey an idea in a new way.
Still House Plants is still a relatively new band. I sincerely hope that, in the future, they can manage to produce a real masterpiece, a strange new experience that can touch people’s souls and give meaning to the uniqueness.
