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Thank you for listening to Lucy’s “Turbulence”

The Western Mass madman is saving DIY pop from the mutants. *chef kiss*

November 01, 2018

For some reason there's a lot of shitty artists making performatively earnest and emotionally stunted music these days, on Tiny Desks and festival stages and wherever. It's like bedroom pop's anti-folk moment. But don't for one second think that's what this is!!!!!

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Lucy is almost 10 years into sounding this way. He's more like the great Molly Nilsson or a fine art painter, using the same tools over and over to whittle deeper into his naif-pop insanity. His crude synths and limited drum samples never upgrade, and he's always singing in this totally original-yet-familiar style. When "Turbulence," from his latest project Cooper B Handy's Album Vol. 5, ends with "Thank you for listening to this song" — he could have ended any of his songs that way, so sweet and weird.

The video for "Turbulence" was directed by Guy Kozak, one of the most talented directors in the DIY MV world. This lighting is flawless. Lucy looks like a Hal Hartley character in heaven, and he sounds like one too from the first line: "Retire someday if I can make enough." In a better world, this masterpiece would make a million dollars.

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Posted: November 01, 2018