Donora :: "And Then The Girls"

These days cultural critique can feel a bit like form meeting function. "Society has gotten too loud," you scream, predictably, into some digital megaphone. "Things have gotten too fractious," you note, obliquely, in between attention-deficit monitoring of multiple social networks. "No one has time for big ideas anymore," you trail off; people are done listening and you have no useful second movement. So, you double-down on your contrarianism, becoming oppositional and distant, unaware, or perhaps helpless, that this is - that you are - now the new, ever-shifting majority. And then along comes a song like "And Then The Girls" from Pittsburgh band Donora. The opening ratatat lyrics recalling Le Tigre and La Roux ("Derivative," you sigh) as synths swirl around like a bunch of drunks in the middle of 2nd Avenue waiting for the sunrise ("Lyrical metaphor, how modernist," you think). And then it comes, a chorus so unrestrained and joyful it reminds you of the way you remember your early 20s (not how they were, the romantic memory leaves the right amount out). It is instantly one of the most satisfying moments in pop music in 2012, something strong enough to silence your interior monologue, for once, making you shut up and sing along.

Listen :: Donora - "And Then The Girls"