‘fever’ is a song that – at its core- demonstrates the impact of current social, cultural, and political anxieties by showcasing the importance of human relationships to people. Parcs’ choices in musical and vocal stylings assist the lyrics messaging and create a layered piece of social commentary that both reflects on platonic love and questions the dangers of the neoliberal individualism of the twenty-first century.

Lyrically, the exploration of a person coming out of their shell and trying to (re)engage with meaningful relationships feels particularly relevant to the discourse surrounding the ‘loneliness epidemic’. The growing sentiments relevant to the idea the people are more uniquely isolated from one another have taken a strong hold of the zeitgeist. Parcs’ song fits into the discourse alongside the faction that questions whether current forms of ‘independence’ are really liberating. As said by Parcs on their Instagram account “It reads like a love song, and really it is, but it’s more about being in love with your friends. It’s also about just feeling happy, alive after feeling low for a while.” By highlighting the importance of human connections within this song, Parcs have taken a subversive approach to critiquing social issues.

Parcs referential vocal stylings further this commentary by pulling on different recognisable elements from the recent past and present’s musical landscape to further situate their messaging. The vocals switch between an almost spoken contemporary indie pop style with lower vocals to a higher vocal range evocative of the 1970s-80s. By combining elements of disco-esque synth elements with higher vocals stylings-reminiscent of the Bee Gees- with how artists in the current softer indie pop space are singing and producing their music- such as The Japanese House, boygenius and girl in red- Parcs’ ‘Fever’ creates a song that sounds familiar yet distinct. This leads to a sound that feels both socially and politically relevant in terms of how current cultural production has been utilising the past.

Within our current cultural zeitgeist, there has been many discussions that we are in the era of the sequel.  Many films are sequels and rely on current IP and many television reboots have been cropping up across the past few years. This has also been a trend in fashion and politics with a resurgence in Britain of the clothes and political parties popular during the millennium (albeit showcasing some marked differences).

This has also translated to the music space. a lot of artistic outputs have been referential to the twentieth century in some way. This can be seen in successful albums such as: 1989 Taylor’s Version (80s), Short n’ Sweet (50s), Access All Areas (90s) and Brat (the millennium). This desire to include an element of the past to ground the otherwise illusive 2020’s through referencing something culturally recognisable has also been seen in other indie artists’ works such as Grace Jones by Goodnight Louisa. The economic and social impacts of post-modernity and neoliberalism have impacted culture deeply by facilitating the current era of the sequel.

Parcs have tackled creating music in this sequel-esque compound production by utilising the almost universal recognition of certain ideas from the musical canon to conceptually do a lot of the heavy lifting in ‘Fever’, allowing their messaging to be both layered and clear. Even the song’s name – ‘Fever’- makes a person instantly think of so many classic songs from the twentieth century from the Bee Gees to Elvis. Many songs that reference this concept of fever discussed intense love or were songs that were played in discothèques. Flipping these concepts on their heads by referencing such ideas to discuss platonic love and the experience of a person coming out of personal darkness makes Parcs choices recognisable but different. By embracing the post-modern and utilising the reliance current art has on the recent past, Parcs have created an interesting, layered, and relevant song.

True commentary cannot exist in a vacuum. So, the inclusion of elements from across various eras within the musical stylings combined with the lyrical focus on a very relevant contemporary problem makes this a very thoughtful piece of cultural production.