Album Review: Bayonne Is Taking “Drastic Measures”
Bayonne’s new album, Drastic Measures, is drastically 80’s, and I adore it. Listening to this album I felt like Pat Benatar in her “Love Is A Battlefield” video crossed with Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza. Yes, I was fully owning my feminine, colorful self, but an album like Bayonne’s makes you own yourself while, simultaneously, confronting how you do not.
From “Drastic Measures” to “Abilia,” it was hard not to want to high-kick through tracks or call up Peter Gabriel during the misted synth-waves of “Same” and “Enders.” Bayonne has made a record that feels surreally virtual in approaching a very real fear of his: instability. The hardest part about being an artist is feeling like it is worth it. We may look at the creative’s life with big, admiring eyes, but the truth is its an emotional rollercoaster that has the tendency to stop at financial or relationship woes. Choosing to be your creative self can have literal costs, and tracks such as, “Gift,” “I Know,” and “Uncertainly Deranged” have Bayonne honestly opening up through zipping arrangements.
Sometimes, I wonder if artists use the rhythms of their songs to dilute the raw reflections they give. Of course, this is not a bad thing, and Bayonne proves this by placing his insecurities like cracks amongst very layered, caked arrangements. From “Kind” to “Bothering,” Bayonne’s album is cleanly decorative; hanging from treed sentiments like high-priced ornaments. Beyonne’s voice, naturally, is the highest price; approaching the hurtfulness of doubt with a clenched serenity like, a man knowing he is on the edge and calmly to deciding to walk back. Thus, you feel torn on how such a danceable, sonically dreamy record can be based in someone’s pain.
There is an old quote “beauty is pain,” and Bayonne has placed it towards music. Yet, this record is beautiful because it is perfectly produced. Instead, the quote should be more like, “happiness is pain, or, at least, the decision to choose to create from it.” Bayonne does this through Drastic Measures, which comes out February 22. Click Here To Buy.
