Tim Kile – Wasteland (2021)
Austin musician Tim Kile has unveiled a boisterous, jovial sounding indie track decrying society’s downfall with amusement and lyrical wit. The bold and brash indie anthem opens with bright guitars and distorted musical edges as Kile, the co-founding former member of Arcade Fire and New Hampshire’s Wild Light, hollers out the song’s catchy chorus. His vocals drop to a low alto hum as he sings about playing with his band, laughing and weeping and sleeping. All the while the music skips along as the wasteland world Kile calls out about burns apocalyptically around it.
The lyrics are cryptic, detailing the dredge of life amid a nihilistic world. They convey a mix of cynicism and optimism and the emotions the musician reveals, with each 24-hour news cycle. While the song leaves the listener to attach their own definitions to Kile’s words, he says the lyric ‘spray tan’ was more of a Jersey Shore reference before becoming all the more prescient with America’s previous administration and its orange-skinned Commander-in-Chief.
The song takes influence from the 70s Memphis-based rock band Big Star and has become a fan favourite of the musician’s most dedicated online followers, dubbed the Kile Kidz. But Kile himself admits a song called ‘Wasteland’ is not the most original notion with many bands applying the concept to albums and songs like M.Ward and The Who. Kile says the concept’s most famous incarnation, by 20th-century poet T.S Eliot, ‘The Waste Land’ was an inspiration. It is an addictive track that hides the singer’s cynicism behind driving retro guitars, big drums and unfolding, carefree melodies warping and distorting towards its finish. Elements of chaos and clashes give the song a sense of a record aged in a dusty studio, but it speaks to the generations of today.
Find out more about Tim Kile on his, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
