Eye of the Eastern Lights - Blonde-Dog
By Andy Portou
Nostalgia and melancholy are a seemingly endless well. Be it musician or listener, there is something so tantalising about writing or connecting with art that reflects on the transient nature of our memories and existence. Joshie Ingham has released a new song under the moniker ‘Blonde-dog’, which pairs hazy, dream-like production with lyrics about our fixation on the past, and how this can affect the present.
Joshie has thrived in the UK punk scene for quite some time, and despite ‘Eye of the Eastern Lights’ being a departure from that high-energy punk sound, the influence is still present. Joshie’s vocals here are intimate and raw, imbued with a sense of longing that pairs well with the slow-paced, soft instrumentation. There are echoes of Britpop shining through here too, such as the backing vocals and guitars, which remind me of some of the softer songs in Blur’s discography. But where this track really shines is in its lyrics, which intimately explore an extreme case of nostalgia in a world that is exponentially speeding up beyond our control:
‘Frame it now,
Every word.
Hang it up,
Like it’s still a work of art.’
Almost everyone I know, from musicians, to office-workers, to friends and family, stresses about whether their life is ‘going according to plan’. Am I making the most of my time, or am I rotting in bed scrolling aimlessly in a doom-spiral? Is my career leading me towards something great, or am I being left behind while everyone around me succeeds? These feelings are so common that they can often result in a romanticisation of the past, that everything was great, and it will only get worse from here. But the reality, what Joshie points out as the song progresses, is that we can always slow down and, with a little help, be pulled out of this mindset and enjoy the present. To grow as a person is to accept the past and move forward, to refuse to be blinded by nostalgia and instead use it as a beautiful, precious tool to create endless new futures. Under a new moniker with a new sound, Joshie Ingham is moving forward and celebrating the beauty of change. I would love to see this moniker develop even further, because with even more sonic honing, Blonde-dog will grow into something really wonderful.
