Oh hi. I didn’t see you there. Welcome to Cool Stuff for Cool Lifeforms August 2022, where every month, I’ll be recommending some cool stuff I’ve been into lately because there’s nothing cooler than sharing the art you love. If you love it, share it.
You’re never going to believe this, but we have some cool stuff for you this month. If you like cool music, books, and television, you’ll probably think these recommendations are also cool. Let’s get to it.
Music
Pool Kids – S/T
What a leap for Pool Kids. Their first album, Music to Practice Safe Sex To, had an all-timer title, but the songs blended together due to a lack of variety and discernable hooks. Holy shit, the new album doesn’t have that problem at all. There’s more variety in each of the first two songs than on the entirety of Safe Sex, and what’s more, lead singer Christine Goodwyne is a goddamn revelation. The vocal melodies are so much stronger here, and that compositional improvement puts a spotlight on how versatile and engaging Goodwyne is. And what’s more, for all the improvement, I think they can get even better. If anything, this new display of versatility just shows we shouldn’t put any limits on how good Pool Kids could be.
Kal Marks – My Name is Hell
Not remotely the same, but this is also lead vocalist Carl Shane’s best album. The vocals on each song sound desperate and broken, like someone coming to grips with impending death. That’s probably the point. This is an album that was recorded and released during a pandemic that is still ongoing, and that’s probably not even the thing that’s going to kill most of us. Somewhere in the middle of the album, the aggressive desperation devolves into a creeping panic, more abstract than the opening songs, and more ominous for it. Albums like this can only come out at the end of the world, and hey, here we are.
Television
Undone
You would think a show by the Bojack Horseman creators would be some kind of huge sensation, but it’s not. Bob Odenkirk even plays an important supporting actor, but nah. That has to change. This is one of the strangest shows on TV, a version of Russian Doll that is both more radically experimental and more emotionally affecting. Imagine Russian Doll mixed with the criminally underrated About Time, and you’re getting pretty close to imagining Undone. The first two seasons are already fully available, and the episodes/seasons are so short that you could watch both in a single day. This is one of those shows that fucks with your emotions just as much as it fucks with your mind, and I mean that in the best possible way. Watch this show and tell everyone about it.
Books
Emily St. John Mandel – Sea of Tranquility
I guess while we’re on the subject of time travel, I have to recommend this book from the author of Station 11 (now a major television sensation!). This is a COVID novel if there ever was one, but not in the way you might think. The book tracks a strange anomaly across many centuries, all with the constant backdrop of pandemics that occurred also across centuries. Beyond the effortlessly engrossing prose, what really sticks out is how well the various pandemics are written. Having seen Station 11, which also deals with the subject matter of a pandemic, it’s clear that one was written prior to living through COVID and the other was written during COVID (Which is still ongoing — mask up in public at all times, you pieces of shit. You’re literally a horrible, awful, selfish person if you don’t. I know pretending the pandemic is over is cool, but it’s not. Don’t be a piece of shit, piece of shit.). Sea nails the small details of what it’s like to live through a pandemic, to be a parent during a pandemic; to get used to a world that is suddenly changed completely and forever. And all of these details are almost happenstance against a plot that solves a mystery across time.
Okay, that’s enough cool stuff for you. Check out this cool stuff and remember to talk about stuff you think is cool, too. Sharing great art is one of the best joys in the world, fuckers.