IN CASE you thought you were going to hear a jazz track, think again.
It’s a wonderfully satirical title to a track that echoes the suave, laidback, swooning theatrics of Nick Cave meets the Arctic Monkeys, who happened to share a few drinks with a wise Lou Reed by Lake Como. I wonder if that’s what motivated the Amsterdam-based artist, Cosmic Crooner (real name Joep Meyer) in filming this hilarious and witty video by Lake Como.
The video, much like the song, has us ‘casually surfing through the century’ like a good old Nouvelle Vague cinemascope. Lyrically, it’s very much a biographical introduction to himself. “Cosmic Crooner was born in such a way,” he sings, again with almost confident smugness (don’t be fooled by the drunken debauchery and millennial child-like freedom he exudes in the video).
It’s a daring move to talk about the seemingly finite line to his career in this original debut single and I say that because of the wonderfully ironic chorus: “Somewhere he knows it’s his last show”. Obviously,he’s well aware that jazz doesn’t mean a song is more than ‘three chords’ (note chorus), so we’re assuming that ‘jazz’ is a metaphor for well, the shittier things in life.
Strolling, prancing about what I can only assume is the fantastical Villa D’Este in Lake Como, the video provides a perfect contrast to the song: a dying bourgeois history in existential angst with a non-causal rebel.
Absolutely the hallmark of a successful songwriter, who took it a step further and managed to introduce himself personally on his debut single.
I’m truly, very curious to see what he’ll come up with next.
