Modern Ideas released the debut single ‘This Is How It Hurts’ back in April (see our premiere here), and the follow-up single ‘Everybody Calls Except You’ maintains the gentle melancholy pop genre with a yearning paean to hurt.
The razor sharp electronica buoyantly supports singer Justin Stokes’s yearning pathos-filled delivery with a backbeat bounce reminiscent of Blancmange or early Depeche Mode, while the lyrics capture the thrilling beauty of emotional and physical pain:
I’m not feeling well
I can’t get out of bed
It’s not that I’m ill
It’s only that I‘m feeling boring
The day’s going slow
My appetite is barely crawling
It sends me to sleep
I know what you like and you don’t like me
Everybody calls me except you
Except you
Justin Stokes, maestro behind the sounds, says of the track:
I’ve been surprised by the extent to which the cold electronic music I’m making can express my more painful and revealing emotions. I already knew this juxtaposition works. So many great bands have done it before me. I just didn’t realise I could do it too. This song explores the lyrical themes of living with chronic illness and feeling disconnected. Used within a mostly synth-based song, these words seemed to have a clearer emotional intensity than in my guitar-written songs.
Indeed the contrast between the vocal delivery and the music create a brilliant tension that has often been the signature sound of bands like The Cure. And at the very heart of anything created by Stokes (who also released material under the name Wilding) is the purity of the pop sensibilities in his delectable craft:
Another fine chapter in Stokes’s magnificent oeuvre, ‘Everybody Calls Me Except You’ is out via all the usual download and streaming sites, but you can get it now through the link above.
Feature Photograph: Lee Hooper
