By ABBY BRAVO
Contributing Writer
Gus Dapperton is an indie pop singer who has a very unique voice and style to his music. On Sept. 18, 2020, he released his second studio album “Orca.” This new album features 10 songs that appear to capture different emotions and feelings in each one. The album is meant to capture Dapperton’s life and each song is a different part of it.
Each song appears to have a different feeling that comes with it. Some can be confusing and have a sound that is happier but the lyrics are quite somber. This album is a narrative of Dapperton’s life, which right off the bat shows the heartache and struggles he has experienced.
Along with the release of the album, he stated that the song “Medicine,” a slower ballad-like song, is something that he wrote as the narrative of his life. The song is about addiction and drug abuse and the struggles of going through rehab. He captured this in his lyrics “every time they try to fix me up, I get addicted to the medicine.” Overall, the song is very somber and means the most to Dapperton as it describes what he has gone through.
The song that his fans seem to enjoy the most, according to it’s Spotify streaming numbers, is “Post Humorous.” I can definitely see why this song is his most popular, and I completely agree. “Post Humorous,” along with being one of the first singles he released to promote the album, is the third song on the tracklist. It begins very slow, and appears to be a song about reminiscing. The use of instruments in this song, along with all of the songs on the album, fit perfectly. The use of guitar and drums creates a very groovy feeling throughout the song, and who doesn’t love a groovy song?
Along with the musical aspect of the song being very catchy and upbeat, the lyrics are also very beautiful and melancholy to me. They are darker, with a focus on death and remembering life. “So would you make me laugh, as for my last request?/Babe, I won’t make it back,” is heartbreaking to me. It shows a kind of hopelessness and trying to squeeze in the last few moments, while the rest of the song is about cherishing what life is and remembrance.
Another song worth highlighting from the album is “Bluebird.” The song appears to be about staying young and what it is like to be young. It is very soulful in a way and there are points in the song where Dapperton’s voice becomes very raw and, as a listener, was very impactful. On top of that, it has a strange juxtaposition in some of the lyrics, “I won and I know you hate to lose / look alive, I’m dead.“ These capture the confusion of being young. The lyrics “I’ve got no car, I’ve got no ride / I’ve got no head to hold up high / But you’ve got heart, and, boy, do you got drive / It’s not that far, it’s worth a try” empower and show how it feels to grow into who you are when you are young while not having the full freedom of an adult. I have a feeling if this song came out when I was a young teen it would definitely be one of my favorites, it still is a favourite of mine off this album. It captures a euphoric, nostalgic feeling and made me feel like I was in a coming-of-age indie film which is always a good feeling to have.
“Post Humorous” and “Bluebird” were easily my favorite songs off of the album, but there were also some songs that I was not a big fan of. The main one being “My Say So.” The song overall is just very repetitive and does not seem as meaningful as the others. The tempo of the song is also very bland when it comes to how complex other songs on the album are. Although it is very catchy, it does not seem to compete with the rest of the album and almost seems out of place. On top of that, this is the only song of the album with a featured singer, Chela. This could be why the song feels so out of place compared to the others since it is not just Dapperton singing.
I do not have a lot of negative things to say about the album as it does capture everything Dapperton seemed to be going for with a “narrative” type of album. I really enjoyed almost all of the songs on the album and will be adding a good portion of them to my playlists. They convey a lot of different emotions all at once which I find is very difficult to do while still sounding put together. The songs flow with each other and all have a taste of nostalgia which is very comforting even though most of the songs are about some type of struggle.
