June commenced with a live show, this time
at Medimex on the 7th but the unavoidable story for this month was the unveiling of a new Editors song. On the 11th came the news that this mysterious new recording would be released at the end of the week. There was a picture of a couple in a combative stance near a swimming pool and the description read:-
"A song for the freaks, a song of joy and escapism, a cartoon song for the different and for the night.
New music on Friday."
With a single word clue they pretty much revealed what the song would be, mostly to those of who have been repeatedly listening to the live versions we've had lately. "Freaks", from the line "Where the freaks get high on sorrow". Given what we knew from the
live shows recently, it had to be
Frankenstein. The thick cloak of secrecy was further removed by Elliott who revealed all in his own Instagram post of the self same poolside image, only his picture had this in the tag:-
"Franky Friday"
Case closed, expectation building.
On the 12th there was a
6 second video released which acted as a teaser for the Frankenstein promotional film. In terms of what it conveyed, it was a mixture of elements. To those that hadn't already heard it revealed that the band were doing their electronic thing again, only this time they were fully immersed having seemingly almost left their guitars at home. They're in there, but they're dwarfed beneath processed beats. Secondly, the image of somebody marching through the night with what appeared to be a body on his shoulder raised an interesting question; what the hell was all of this about? It took a week before we had answers and even then, it was not without some weirdness.
The band played Firenze on the 16th June, and although we don't have a recording of the gig we did get an
interview with Tom and Russell.
On the 19th of June the video for Frankenstein was finally released! Yay! After a few hours it was withdrawn from the internet entirely! Huh? Then on the 20th June the video for Frankenstein was finally released again! Yay! This was the exact timeline of events over that 24 hour period. Perhaps it was a test posting that went a little too public a little too early for the label's promotional schedule? It was actually on the band's official website on the 19th, but unlisted on YouTube itself if you searched for it. I remember remarking to someone online that it seemed weird that this was happening, and then about an hour later it was gone completely.
Whatever the reasoning, it finally found its place on YouTube and it was then time to deconstruct and pull apart the details. The first thing I noticed were the Stanley Kubrick references. The large lettering of the title scenes, the wide open spaces and positioning of the subjects at the middle bottom of the screen, the message on the cereal box (a reference to executive producer Luke Tierney?). It looks beautiful.
Mihail Makarov (aka Misha) is perfect for this role. Not only does he possess the physicality to bust out some moves when required, he has that suitably creepy look of a guy that's about to reanimate a decomposing pop star. I mean that with the utmost respect, but he does look like he'd be able to do you unspeakable damage with sharp instruments while laughing about it. Speaking of the plot.
Oh dear.
Proof again that however much they may want to fly with the eagles of fluffy pop music, Editors can usually find a way to clip their own wings. Write a mainstream pop tune and then align it to some visuals that contain corpse-bothering, suspects being beaten in the street and dancing. Lots of gleeful dancing. If you haven't
seen the video yet (something I highly doubt if you're visiting this blog), go check it out and imagine pitching that story idea to the head of a major record label. Good luck. Editors gonna be Editors. It's good that they have the freedom to do this, as I would think that a lot of artists in the music industry would never be afforded that much room to express themselves. Particularly if they were solely on a major.
The song still has that divisive quality and looking at the comments section of the video, it's still apparent that people are upset at the musical direction Editors took here. As I've mentioned before, that's fine. Everyone is going to hear these things differently and everything depends on what we're bringing to it. Personal taste is a powerful thing. Me? I love it. Misha is convincing as hell as a guy that just needed some dancing in his life to go back to appreciating bus rides and breakfast cereal. Samantha Bantua Dodoo has got some rhythmic skills of her own, and manages what is probably a very accurate portrayal of a rotting Beyonce (sorry, Baeonse). Plus,
Frankenstein is just a really good tune. In my opinion.
Being the kind of person I am, mightily obsessed with details, I was curious to know if any of the links in the scene where Mihail is researching reanimating his Baeonse were legitimate. Turns out...they all are.
How To Make Potion To Bring Someone Back From The Dead
HOW TO BRING DEAD LOVED ONES BACK TO LIFE!!! (REALLY WORKS)
Can These Scientists Bring Dead People Back to Life?
Is It Possible to Bring Someone Back From the Dead?
It shouldn't need to be said, but I will anyway. Not all of these techniques are going to make you into Herbert West over night (at least one is outright fraudulent and irritatingly odd right from the beginning). If Misha had gone ahead and used any of them he'd be absolutely no nearer to dancing with Baeonse. That stuff just doesn't work. Still, isn't it funny/appalling to think that these weren't just made up for the film?
One thing that does concern me is the question of what the use of Gregory Ohrel's services for this film means for Editors' ongoing relationship with Rahi? Two Editors videos and Mr Rezvani had no hand in either. Is this the end of that era? We'll have to accept it if it is, after all it's not our call, but I won't necessarily be flying flags and waving colourful banners about it.
June ended with a gig that has flown almost completely under the radar at La Nuit de l'Erdre, for whatever reason. I think it may be down to most of the festival coverage in the media going Glastonbury's way. Weren't The Cure awesome? And Brandon Flowers singing
This Charming Man with Johhny Marr on guitar? Forget about it.
Before I go, there was some potential news breaking as I was getting this post ready to publish. On the 1st July
HiddenJams uncovered some very interesting documentation. They noted that on The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers official website, three new entries from Editors had shown up. They are
Frankenstein,
Black Gold and
Upside Down. We know that there were three songs created during the Jacknife Lee sessions recently, and we already have one of them. These titles may be the other two. The "Black Gold" mystery has been going on for months now, as well as the origins of this set of lyrics which surfaced in February:-
"I know you better than you know yourself."
If you thought that was the most intriguing part of all of this, how about this snapshot from the ASCAP site:-
Andy Burrows has made an appearance as a writer on an Editors track. Not a Smith and Burrows tune, but an Editors song. This means that the band has continued evolving with outside influences being cited as direct contributors to the song construction, rather than as simply producers or engineers. On
VI OLENCE Blanck Mass got a songwriting credit and now Mr Burrows has one.
The longer this goes on the more fluid everybody's roles seem to be, and the more it feels almost like Editors is becoming a collective rather than a band with fixed boundaries that can never be crossed. People can come and go without having to feel that clawing feeling of eternal obligation. It's been that way ever since Justin and Elliott came on board, with each of them going out to do their own things and Nic Willes stepping in from time to time. In fact, it goes back as far as Tom playing with Andy Burrows when Editors Mk 1 was imploding or further still when Chris played onstage with We Are Scientists at Reading in 2008. The consistent feature is freedom, and that will be the thing that keeps them going and probably has enabled them to continue this long in the first place.
Enjoy the stuff ;)
Editors Instagram June 2019
