One of the most dangerous time-suck activities of the modern era is stumbling across the Facebook profile of a high school classmate you haven’t thought about in a decade, only to find yourself sifting through years of posts trying to pinpoint the moment they transformed from the friendly kid you once knew to the type of adult who vocally supported our 45th president. This is the subject Tyler Jordan tackles on the latest single and title track from his band Good Looks’ forthcoming debut album, Bummer Year, which rides the Big-Thiefian wave of alt-folk taking over arenas and DIY spaces all over the post-Trump nation. “Our strength is in our numbers, in the streets is where we show them / You force someone to listen to you when they’re fucking scared,” Jordan sings on the introspective track over golden-hour guitars and light percussion.
“Ultimately, what I came to is, it was a failure of the left and working class institutions for not being able to win over enough folks to their cause,” Jordan shares, looking back on the 2016 election. “If there’s going to be positive, substantive change in this country, it’s going to take convincing a large section of the working class by showing them where their interests truly lie. So much ‘political action’ in this moment is about shaming and dunking on folks via social media, but the task at hand is actually about meeting folks where they’re at, and bringing them into the fold. This song clumsily attempts to bridge that gap. And like most of my songs, who knows if it’ll change anything or win anybody over, but it made me feel better.”
Check out the track below, and expect Bummer Year out April 8 via Keeled Scales.
