Superorganism by Superorganism (2/5)

Must Hear Tracks: “It’s All Good” “Something for Your M.I.N.D” “Nobody Cares”

One email was all it took to launch Superorganism into the limelight. Orono received an instrumental from some musical friends in London. In her boarding school dorm room, she wrote and recorded a vocal track on her “shitty” Macbook Air. She sent it back. The resulting song, “Something for you M.I.N.D.,” made them the talk of the music blogoshpere in a matter of weeks. Eventually, Frank Ocean and Ezra Koenig played it on their respective radio shows. A humble beginning turned into a breakthrough.

With that burst of positive press, the eight artists that make up Superorganism had all the reason they needed to solidify the project. The cosmopolitan band converged on London, where five members already lived. The East London house that they now share is a “non-stop pop production house,” according to guitarist and songwriter, Harry. But they don’t rehearse in real time; the process is far more compartmentalized. Song ideas bounce from room to room via email. It’s a little creative bureaucracy facilitated by technology, and the music they produce reflects that fact. Their eponymous debut album is dominated by a desire for more: more fame, more connection, more knowledge, and more relaxation. Conceptually, Superorganism is timely, but its depiction of our tech-obsessed world barely scratches the surface. Though there are flashes of brilliance, it’s mostly unfocused and redundant.

The communal creative process seems to have backfired on most of Superogranism. Rather than producing a multitude of diverse ideas, they narrow in on a few half-developed ones. The supposedly universal desire to be “on every screen” and transcend obscurity is interchangeable between “Everybody Wants to be Famous” and “SPRORGNSM.”  But on ‘The Prawn Song” they lament over how “people are all the same.” Duality is ideal, but in this case it feels more like an unintentional contradiction than a thoughtful change of heart. Furthermore, all three tracks rely on the power of declarative statements (everybody is this, everybody is that) without a single attempt to figure out why. Redundancy creeps in again on “It’s All Good” and “Relax,” which can both be reduced to the phrase “take a chill pill,” but the latter feels like haphazard dilution of the former. Then there’s the technophile splatter painting of “Nights,” which throws Facebook propaganda, green screens, and cam girls into a blender but makes no effort to make sense of it all. To make matters worse, sunny slide guitar, burpy synth bass, and glitchy electronics remain consistent throughout the album. It may seem like a novel combination, and it sounds fresh for the first few songs. Right around the midpoint, though, the novelty wears off and there’s nothing to fall back on except Superorganism’s blurry opinions of modernity. On a 10 track album, overlap hurts, and there’s a lot of it here.

Having said all that, Superorganism hints at unrealized potential. The opening track morphs from an electro-pop trot during the verses to a sludgy chorus that sounds like Queen wrote an anime theme song. It triumphantly declares “it’s all good,” but the backing vocals quietly reply “you tell yourself,” to cast the perfect amount of doubt. “Nobody Cares” is a stomping tune that asks “how am I to care when nobody else does?” but eventually uses that dilemma to justify personal freedom. If nobody cares, why not be yourself? Technology and relationships are intertwined on “Reflections on the Screen,” which ends with the narrator feeling alive because of a “GIF playing on repeat.”  And, of course, there’s “Something For Your M.I.N.D.”, which is still their catchiest track to date. Orono haphazardly sings “mama needs food, how about a barbecue?” but it’s her brain that needs to be fed. The ubiquitous yearning for more is nuanced and fun on these songs, more so than anywhere else on the album. The bright spots don’t totally redeem Superorganism, but they reveal an exciting level of pop song-craft that could be expanded upon.

Based on their own definition, a superorganism is “A creature / Made up of many different individuals / Thanks to technological systems” and the band exactly that. The artists are the organs, email is the connective tissue, and their cramped house is the body. They inhale their collective influences (in the form of a collaborative Spotify playlist) and exhale their own interpretation of pop music. The method seems effective when written out, but they seem to be experiencing some growing pains. Having only been a band for about a year, the lack of focus that runs through most of Superorganism suggests they’re working into the digital-collaborative process. Still, their strongest tracks are alt-pop gold. Superorganism’s next release will determine the trajectory of their entire career. It’s do or die time; they will either work out the kinks or fade into irrelevance.

Sources: Fader Feature. BBC Interview. Dazed Interview. Blogrebellen Interview. Genius Lyrics.