Spectreview: Bartees Strange – Live Forever

Released: October 2, 2020

Alternative/Indie
(Post-Genre)

-PEARL-

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Could I be?
Could I be?

Is this the moment? Are we in agreement that alternative music is finally ready for the future? Because that’s what Bartees Strange’s debut record sounds like: a record unmistakably built on alternative touchstones but guided by current sensibilities. Live Forever runs through so many different styles it’s like switching between radio stations, with Strange’s deft musicality anchoring every decision. Countless acts might come to mind in its folds, and yet by virtue of its bold polymerization nothing else sounds quite like it.

Part of that is how it’s designed to catch you at odd angles at every turn. The anthemic, liberating “Mustang” bends into “Boomer’s” cross-pollination of trap, pop-punk and stadium rock; “Kelly Rowland,” the exquisite slice of downcast rap that comes right after, yields to the mathy surge of “In a Cab,” the brilliantly emotive “Stone Meadows” and the dim-lit banger “Flagey God.” Throughout, Strange maintains the alternative label but rides the line between rock and pop (between past and present, really) so confidently it’s hard to believe it’s his first LP. It might just be a perfect listen, as exciting on first listen as it is rewarding on repeat.

Yet Live Forever isn’t just a stylistic smorgasbord out of nowhere. Strange’s tales of growing up in a decidedly-racist suburb of Oklahoma City speak to a time-old friction between the pride in identity and the measures needed to tamp down that identity for the sake of the environment. Considering the overwhelmingly white history (and current status) of alternative/indie music, Strange was likely just as internally compromised in his efforts to lend his. Picture how many Kings of Leon comparisons you’ll hear about “Stone Meadows,” or Bon Iver comparisons to “Far” and “Fallen for You”; sonically they’re fair comparisons to be sure, but you’ll notice the frustration in capitulating to the influence of white artists whose careers were built off the sounds of ancestral Black artists.

Part of the magic of listening to Live Forever, then, is noticing how Strange seamlessly blends classic alternative sounds with current hallmarks in hip-hop and dance to create something fresh and undeniably of-the-moment. In doing so, the record goes beyond a simple genre-hopping exercise into something much more meaningful, even meta: an unapologetic, complex declaration of identity in a genre that’s unjustly discarded or commodified many such efforts for years. Yet aside from the confrontational menace of “Mossblerd,” Strange largely chooses to keep the gates open, inviting as wide a crowd as possible into his world while speaking directly to the people whose voices are often silenced in this field.

With any luck, that might just be the key to expand alternative beyond its persistently narrow scope into something more diverse, accepting, even exciting again. I’m gonna cross my fingers. In the meantime, it’s important to state just how successfully this record meets the crossroads between ambition and execution, with a beating heart to match. In its boundless adventurousness and overflowing personality, Live Forever would feel liberated from all constraints even outside of its context. This, undoubtedly, is the caliber of effort that the genre should aspire to moving forward.

Highly recommended for every stickler left out there.