Christian Lee Hutson
Aisle 5
∙
Atlanta
Wednesday, February 5 at 8 pm EST
Concert Venue
Bar
Wednesday, February 5 at 8 pm EST
Concert Venue
Bar
Entry Options
Details
Artists
Description
Wednesday February 5 @ Aisle 5
Speakeasy presents…
Christian Lee Hutson, Allegra Krieger
7pm / $20 / All Ages
Tickets: https://seetickets.us/ChristianLeeHutsonA5
‘Paradise Pop.10’ feels like you have found an unpublished collection
of short stories, scrawled hastily on the sides of airsickness bags and
cocktail napkins, each one detailing the life of the unwitting passenger
fortunate enough to be seated next to Christian Lee Hutson on their flight to
Fort Worth.
Anyone who has had the good fortune of falling in love with his first
two records know that he is a keen observer of both himself and the world.
From the first line of the first song on this new album, “Tonight your name is
Charlotte / In a play within a play,” he reminds the listener that he is again
weaving a web of autobiographical fiction. However, this time he has
somehow both simplified and sharpened his style.
On ‘Paradise Pop. 10’ you will visit the CC Club in Minneapolis, a San
Francisco stage production of a Tom Stoppard play, a bowling alley at the
Jersey Shore, and a 2003 Subaru where two dads consider kissing each
other after a game of pick-up basketball. Despite how broad the world
Hutson creates is, the album gives you the impression that you are at an
airport gate of sorts, and all these characters are gathered together, waiting
for their lives to begin. They make light conversation with each other as
their flight continues to be delayed…just another 15 minutes.
Recorded at Figure 8 in Brooklyn NY, the lifelong Los Angelino and his
frequent collaborators Phoebe Bridgers, Marshall Vore, and Joseph Lorge
ventured east to make ‘Paradise Pop. 10’ and picked up some friends along
the way. Maya Hawke co-wrote and sang harmony on the sharp and
shoegaze-y earworm “Carousel Horses.” This song is a spiritual sequel to
“Age Difference,” a single from Christian’s last record, which depicts the
crumbling of an unbalanced love affair. “You shouldn’t feel stupid/ I just
knew before you did/ Now I’m sitting here spinning my wheels/ I bet you
know how that feels.”
Accompanied by Shahzad Ismaily’s synths, Hutson’s voice shines
most clearly on “After Hours.” He sings from a condominium in a
corporatized Heaven to the woman he misses back on earth. “Big budget
productions of the lives of your loved ones / The good stuff is behind a
paywall”. Though the citizens of this Heaven are offered daily glimpses into
life on Earth, our narrator prefers to imagine the minutiae of his love’s
routine while he waits for her to join him.
One of the albums most sparse tracks, “Flamingos,” finds Hutson at
the piano backed by Phoebe Bridgers singing harmony. In this song we
catch a glimpse of an anxious traveler, fresh off a flight from Tokyo, as he
weaves and bobs through a crowd to reunite with a girlfriend. “I’m taking
the red eye over the dateline / A sea of slow walkers all taking their sweet
time.” As he describes what he sees in her, we see him struggle to resist
the urge to point out the differences between them, always reminding her of
the score. “Losers remember the people who won / Winners are never
afraid to lose / You only think about falling in love / I only think about you”.
The listener is left with the question; if you love someone as they are, could
you ever really lose?
The record is somehow both literary and unpretentious, maybe best
exhibited in the final track, “Beauty School”. Katy Kirby sings backing vocals
on this surprising pop-punk tinged dose of poolside folk rock. “In a mirror
universe / Time is moving in reverse / I’m gonna turn my life around /
everything is different now.” The lyrics to this chorus call back to that of
another song from the record; “Candyland.” “Dismantling my time machine /
I’ll probably put back together for the final scene.” Again, Hutson gives the
keen listener the impression that he is actively re-narrativizing his life. That
he has wound up somewhere he never thought he would be and is trying to
wrap his head around how not to ruin it.
‘Paradise Pop. 10’ takes its name from a real life “town” set deep in
the woods of Parke County, Indiana, near where Hutson spent some of his
childhood. There, just past the population sign, you’ll find a row of 5 houses
on one side of the road and a cemetery on the other. It could feel like a
limbo of sorts, like time is frozen; leaving room for your mind to wander
either backward into your regrets of the past or forward into the future, into
the unknown. But if you can learn to quiet these thoughts, you might
realize, you aren’t waiting at all. There is no delay. You are living. You are
here.
Written by Olive Plunk