Music
Why Brody Dalle’s ‘Diploid Love’ is Worth Your Time
Brody Dalle (formerly of The Distillers and Spinnerette) recently released her first solo record, Diploid Love and it kind of caught me off guard. I was never hugely into either of her first two bands (though now I’m sort of primed to give them another shot), neither of them hitting at the right point in my life to really connect with me. But, for whatever reason, I felt compelled to sample a few songs from Diploid Love and they took hold fairly quickly. Within moments I had purchased the album on iTunes and three weeks later it’s still enjoying fairly heavy rotation in my household.
Some detractors of the record have lamented that it lacks a bit of the edge and intensity of Dalle’s work in The Distillers, which is a fair enough criticism except that’s not really the point here. After extricating herself from addiction and becoming a mother it would be dishonest of Dalle to appropriate a decade-old expired perspective in the name of fan service. Here, she’s refreshingly candid in a way that’s blunt enough to bravely flirt with true uncoolness in the eyes of today’s music blogosphere. Recovery, motherhood and Los Angeles through the lens of someone in their 30’s who no longer parties – not the topics of someone arbitrarily trying to connect with youth culture.
But still, there’s a remarkable energy and ferocity here (along with some great understated moments) – it’s not like all the rough edges have been sanded off. Opening track “Rat Race” approaches the screaming intensity of The Distillers, but the album hits its stride in the middle stretch. “Dressed In Dreams”, “Carry On” and “Meet The Foetus” are all exceptionally successful in marrying her youthful energy to her new point of view. “Foetus” in particular is a surprisingly touching song about connecting with an unborn child and the anxieties of bringing new life into a world that is falling into disarray (a theme nicely fleshed out by its accompanying video).
Diploid Love at times feels like the transitional album that it is. At only nine tracks, there’s a palpable tentativeness in terms of making a “bold statement.” It’s not that, it’s an update. A first step into unfamiliar terrain. And there’s a slight hiccup with “Don’t Mess With Me”, a forced olive branch to fans not ready to move on (it’s the only tune I regularly skip). But when you’ve got stuff like the surprisingly assured “Parties For Prostitutes” to close out your record, you can survive a few bumps in the road.
You can buy Diploid Love on iTunes and check out “Meet The Foetus” below.
Synthwave outfit GUNSHIP has released a new official music video this morning for their cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” featured on the soundtrack to Corin Hardy’s (The Nun, The Hallow) supernatural horror film Whistle.
To bring it full circle, Corin Hardy directs the music video himself, incorporating previously unseen footage from Whistle. More specifically, the new music video features an extended sequence from the film.
This collaboration builds on GUNSHIP’s longstanding relationship with Hardy, who previously contributed vocals to the band’s track “Cthulhu.”
“Working with Corin is a total dream,” said GUNSHIP. “He’s an old friend who we bonded with over our love for cinema and music, and we were honored to have our song featured in the film. After the Whistle premiere, we were chatting over a pint, and he told us about a beautiful pseudo ‘one shot’ sequence he was heartbroken to lose in the final film. We suggested resurrecting it and using it as a music video. Corin got it immediately, and the result is perfect. It’s heartbreaking, haunting and pure 80s noir soaked.”
Corin Hardy added: “I wanted Whistle to feel like a horror movie I might have watched around the late 1980s, alongside films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lost Boys, and The Breakfast Club. Films steeped in teen-angst and heightened feelings. Music was such a huge part of creating the romance of those cinematic worlds. Gunship’s synth-drenched cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ was always top of my list. Their unique heart-on-your-sleeve sound was the perfect choice for a key moment in the movie. To come together post-release and create this extended music video is simply the cherry on top. Dan, Al & Al (Gunship) have provided the film a real companion piece in the world of Whistle… it makes me want my MTV again!”
It’s a fitting collaboration, as music serves a narrative purpose in Whistle. Music, the director told Bloody Disgusting, was a means of immersing viewers in this world and its characters’ perspectives. Hardy even touched on this particular track: “So in a way, the music you’ll listen to is effectively what Chrys is listening to, which is her dad’s record collection. Then there are other songs like the Gunship track, which is a Cyndi Lauper cover, which is more like Rel’s [Sky Yang] music. It comes in when we have a sequence in Rel’s romantic heartbreak moment. So yeah, I made a character list of who might be listening to what.”
Whistle sees a misfit group of unwitting high school students confronted with mortality when they blow a cursed Aztec Death Whistle, setting a terrifying chain of events in motion.
Dafne Keen (Logan, “The Acolyte“), Sophie Nélisse (“Yellowjackets”), Sky Yang (Rebel Moon), Jhaleil Swaby (“Supergirl”), Ali Skovbye (Grizzly Night, “Firefly Lane”), Percy Hynes White (“Wednesday”), Michelle Fairley (“Game of Thrones”), and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead).
The supernatural teen horror movie is available to stream on Shudder now.