REVIEW: babybaby_explores' "Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow" via No Gold

This past weekend I followed my roommate to a Buffalo Daughter show in downtown Portland. I had never listened to Buffalo Daughter before and only knew that they were from Japan and didn’t tour the US much. Opening for them was another band, a three piece with a strange energy and impeccable vibes. Toward the end of their set they announced they were from Providence, RI. Three thousand miles from my home city a band breezed into town from the same place. Naturally I bought their latest record from them. It was on cassette and the music on it pretty much matched what I saw.


My highest compliment on babybaby_explores is their ability to write a song about absolutely anything. On each track their vocalist, who introduced themselves to me as “Lids” while making the hand gesture of taking a lid off of a cup, sings in varying degrees of strange, but effective, vocal melodies about things that I’m not always totally sure are metaphorical as much as they are literal. The concept of sticking gum to the sidewalk, living as a duck and off of discarded wonder bread, anything and everything are fair game. Some cuts on the record I actually can discern deeper meaning from. “Carolyn,” which is my favorite off the record, definitely feels like it’s either about the people you stopped talking to and now feel this social pressure to ask them for plans or hang outs when you run into them when you were fine graduating, or leaving your job and never thinking about them again. Or the sexual tension implied on “Twiddle.”


I enjoy how the overall sonics just sort of match the energy of the lyricism. Don’t expect too much diversity in the track listing but if lofi, synth pop and lounge are things you enjoy being blended together you’re in for a treat. It all sounds weird when you aren’t totally in it but once you’re more familiar with the songs themselves it's easy to relax, jam, dance, whatever you want to them. The band’s music kind of has this catch all energy of moods. It’s minimalist, it's easy to listen to.


I was feeling pretty home sick these past couple of weeks and have sort of reflected on why I feel comfortable away from Providence and the east coast in general. I think in contrast to seeing a band from home I can reflect on the fact that Portland in spirit and the general area I’m in represent something I always knew was missing from my life before here. I’m glad I had a brush with it back then, I’m glad to see more and more great acts coming out of New England and am proud to be from the same place as this group of artists.

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