Great New Song: "Snookered" by Dan Deacon

This is one of those occasions on the blog where I write about something you probably already know about.  By this point, most everyone knows that Dan Deacon’s  new album, Bromst, is getting rave reviews.  The electronic party guy has matured; his new album is darker and full of exciting texture.  I always thought of Spiderman of the Rings as sort of a joke, something that merely existed as a vehicle to Dan’s incredibly inventive and interactive live shows.  I wasn’t expecting too much more than that for this album, especially after the mild debacle that was the Brooklyn Masonic Temple show.  But wow, do I agree with the critics on this one.  So even though everyone has been recommending this album, I also have to throw my hat into the ring, specifically for the fourth and longest track, “Snookered.”

It starts out quietly, with playful, contemplative chimes cutting through the air.  (By the way, if you’re listening to this mp3 on your computer speakers, stop now!  Put on headphones!  Nice headphones, if possible!  I try not to be a sound-snob, but trust me, this will make allll the difference.)  Then, the beat comes in along with distant, garbled voices.  It’s half-hopeful, half-despairing.  You could hear it either way, depending on what mood you happen to be in at the time (one of the marks of a good song, in my opinion).  Then, the chanting vocals come in.  There’s not exactly a melody, but somehow it feels like the key continues to elevate with each turn of the verse.  It takes you up to dizzying heights, into a typically Deacon-like surge.  Suddenly, about six minutes in, everything breaks down into a rhythmic pattern of chopped-up voices circling around each other.  A brilliant let-down, as he comes out of it and takes you into the verse one more time.

What I like so much about the song are the deep and complicated feelings it evokes.  If “Wham City’s” chorus brought you up to dizzying heights, screaming and sweating at the top of your lungs while dancing with abandon in front of Dan’s green skull, “Snookered” gets at something deeper in your soul, something more than just the collectivity of his live performance.  He says, “I hope to make it home one day/I doubt that day will come.”  Hope is abundantly present in the music, but so is the bitter that disappointment that life often brings.  ”The rain all turned to piss.”  Rain turning into urine is a vivid image.  I imagine the kids who come to Dan’s concerts to dance and lose themselves for a little while.  He’s playing an outdoor show, and just at the height of the craziness, the sky opens up and it begins to rain.  The kids in tight jeans and ray-bans look up, mouths open in sheer  joy, beads of water streaking down their foreheads as they begin to get soaked.  Not a care in the world.  And suddenly…it all turns to piss.  They keep dancing, but…  It’s this contradiction in this song and in Dan Deacon as an artist, the matured joy, the love tinged with bitterness, that makes Bromst such an exciting endeavor from him.

MP3: “Snookered” – Dan Deacon (Thanks to The Post-Rockist)