Sub Pop newbie Lex Walton just dropped her label debut, “Ultimate Love Forever”, taking aim at many systemic transgressions including the “widespread meaninglessness in indie rock” at a time of genocide and tyranny. In a recent interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, Walton asked, “Do you need to see more people get killed for you to feel something other than a wristwatch at the himbo dome, or whatever fucking bullshit? What are you doing?”
She’s talking about MJ Lenderman here, whose “houseboat” vocal gets a nod in “Hipster Runoff.” But Walton’s sentiment gnaws at something that’s angered me for years: everyone wants to rip off Neil Young but only the guitars. I think these Crazy Horse wannabes would be far more compelling if their lyrics gleaned anything but bro-y word salad or celebrity name-drops. But hey, what do I know?
Walton sheds her peers’ verbose habits by tearing into “hypnagogic Republicans, shitgaze landlords” like Ariel Pink and Wavves directly and calling out algorithms, short-form video content, drones, and killer cops for being equal players in the inevitable, optimized end of the world.
That “Hipster Runoff” is this totally batshit, Suicide-meets-Wolf Parade-style blog-rock scorcher, plagued with decay and produced by Dan Boeckner himself, is just another part of her language. While Arcade Fire’s Sarah Neufeld drags her bow across the song, Walton shouts out Kony 2012 and pushes back against the millennial apathy her music is so cleverly cribbing: “I know it’s the obvious thing to say / It’s not gonna change anyone’s mind / But you know if they’re gonna round us all up tomorrow / I just want you to know that I hate you.” Rock music can’t save anyone anymore, but we can use it to say who’s killing us.
The Fat Angel Sings 