The problem with really overt pop-cultural nostalgia is that it’s really easy to be accused of cynical populism. In fact, is there anything more cynical and populist than reminding people of all that shit, that cultural detritus, the forgotten mass produce of capitalism that we once cluttered up our lives with? It was abandoned and forgotten for a good reason in most cases; it became redundant or was superseded or was plain unnecessary in the first place. TV shows like I <3 the 80′s are guilty of more than fragrant abuse of apostrophes: they’re guilty of exploiting hollow nostalgia for commercial gain. The nostalgia is actually for our youth, not the bullshit that was sold to us, but you can show someone in their late twenties a screencap from Thundercats and you’ll instantly have some common ground, which it’s harder to get with fuzzy ideas about universal human experience.
And so we come to ‘I Miss the 90s’ by The Winter Olympics. They make a good start with a clear demonstration that they understand apostrophes: literacy is good. From there they also step in the right direction with some tongue-in-cheek lyrics that, for me, manage to walk the fine line between an affectionately mocking, self-deprecatory tone and a reflection of the genuine nostalgia for the trappings of youth. Take the first verse:
I watched Reality Bites three times last night
And it nearly made me cry.
Did we ever honestly actually act like that?
Wouldn’t we have just laughed at the grunge girl?
It recounts the rewatching of a 90s cult film and immediately mocks its poor reflection of the culture of the time. But then, straight after that, you get this:
I miss the nineties
I miss the Mega Drive
I miss Eric Cantona
I miss The X-Files
And there you’ve got your name-checking, the thoughtless, uncritical recollection of shared consumer experience. Like I said, it’s a fine line, and I think you need the silly and obvious nostalgia in order to then make fun of it. So yeah, although I wonder if that name-checking may come back to haunt the band, I think it’s a fun song.
Oh yeah! It’s a song! So you’ve got these big, fuzzy guitars with some distortion and a hint of crunch that reminds me of that early-00s alt rock sound as exemplified by Hell Is For Heroes. You’ve also got keys and synths blipping away and filling out a broad melody that provides the exact sort of simple hook you want for a song so driven by its lyrics rather than its vocal line.
It’s backed with ‘This is the Fourth Time (I Have Been In Your House)’, another not entirely serious song that is either a look back at or a fictionalised tale of a teen relationship that warps into something demented and stalkery. It’s big and beefy like the a-side but it eschews keys and synths for the bulk of its runtime and is reminiscent of the Pixies thanks to a root note bassline, distorted vocals and unconventional vocal delivery.
Both songs come recommended – I say that as someone who approached the single with some very cynical expectations – and I’m keen to hear more from the band.
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