To use a metaphor familiar to the writing period of Mikkel Holm Silkjær’s 2022 solo debut as Holm, Why Don’t You Dance could be seen as a singular Raymond Carver short story when compared to the relatively denser network of songs he’d written a year prior with his band Yung, which were more akin to Robert Altman’s interweaving of those same Carver shorts to craft the screenplay for his proto-Magnolia epic Short Cuts. While the sonic similarities are surely there behind a uniform lyrics-first agenda on both records, Holm’s less riff-heavy approach leans further into Silkjær’s literary influences than Yung’s rock-sourced material, with Silkjær citing Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love collection as a primary influence.
With that solo record’s follow-up Alien Health looming on the horizon, the (further) alienated writings of polically exiled author Ágota Kristóf served as the primary influence on these new songs, to say nothing of the solitary days of the early pandemic. As heard on the LP’s latest single “The Wig,” the result is something existentially untethered—while still instrumentally rousing. A motivational anthem encouraging the listener not to fall into the traps of motivational quotes, the track slowly crescendos as the prescient overthinking commences.
“‘The Wig’ is here to let you know that motivational quotes can’t cure self-loathing,” Silkjær’s explains. “‘The Wig’ is here to let you know that ‘Hard work pays off’ is a statement invented to fool you into believing that working hard actually will reward you. ‘The Wig’ is here to provide you with an even cheaper suggestion to how to cope with a loss of purpose than what your local bookshop has to offer on their self-help bookshelves: Let’s collectively have a laugh because we’re all Muppets trying to make sense out of the senseless.”
Hear the track below, and pre-order Alien Health before it arrives September 8 via PNKSLM here.
