On Melancholia

Limbeck's transition from indie-emo outfit to alt-country cowpunks seems perfectly logical. Pop music, as a form perfects the expression of loss or longing. Think of a pop song as always trying to capture something lost. Somehow dance, electronica, techno, rave, whatever you call it, has no interest in the capturing of loss, instead focuses on the fleetingness of the moment.

Although critics would like to separate form and content, it only occurs in theory. The country ballad seems to have perfected the pop songs interest in longing. The whole idea of understanding pop music in this way can be understood by reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelity or subscribing to my theory of Melancholia.

The strain of sadness that runs throughout popular music is where content becomes form. It's only logical that as Limbeck, perfected their broken-hearted ballads, the form of retro-guitar-driven late punk could no longer express the emotive content of their music. This is how their move to alt-country had taken place.

Is it not the case that the content becomes the form or that the content finds a suitable form?