Concert Review: Fan’s Barton’s Den Is An Indie Place To Observe
Meric Long created Fan as an indie project of observance. His debut, Barton’s Den, was made across sessions in various times and places: two weeks spent completely alone in Galicia, Spain, at his mother-in-law’s cottage in the woods, a week holed up in a Portland basement during a blizzard, and nights in a soundproofed Oakland garage once his newborn daughter had gone to bed. I mention these locales because you can feel each of those settings in Barton Den’s new record; one dedicated to finding your comfort zone throughout life’s chapters.
Whether good or bad, life seems to be according chapters, which can be tiresome. At times, you are ready to start a new one or wish an old one was never written, but, ultimately, if your life is a book then Fan is a sonic Edgar Allan Poe. Like the acclaimed poet, Long can bounce his compositions from the mystical to the macabre; making melodies either fall like snow or land like crows. Tracks like “Bob1”, “What A Mistake”, “Fire”, and “Velour” show the singer’s range in taste and tenacity. He can either give you post- punk or dance- pop, but always offers you the headspace he was trying to fill.
Long’s voice comes off like a prayer. With he spiraling upwards or downwards, voice spikes like a sacred lifeline. From “Isn’t Love” to “Intro of Light”, he lyrically observes what it is to want to be fulfilled, but not quite sure how “fulfillment” goes. Often, in life, we discuss how we want “love”, “acclaim”, and “stability”, and though we may get those things, in the forms we wished, we still may struggle to feel them. Thus, Barton’s Den’s becomes a vast, intimate place that symbolizes the moments we confront ourselves on why we are not falling in love with out life only to find that the challenge is us. Through melodies that breathe in the dissatisfaction and satisfaction of living, Fan’s Barton’s Den show music is a locational in effect as linguistic. For More Information On Fan And To Buy Barton’s Den Click Here.
