Kevin Bronson on March 6th, 2021

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Quick bits on notable singles that arrived this past week, from Adult Books, Mating Ritual and Melpo Mene …

ADULT BOOKS, “Grecian Urn”

On the heels of last month’s single “Florence,” Adult Books (Nick Winfrey, Sina Salessi and Alex Galindo) are back with the title track of their sophomore album, “Grecian Urn,” out March 26 via Taxi Gauche Records. Winfrey continues to find ways to make post-punk-derived music interesting, here with some mesmerizing synth-n-bass. “I wrote ‘Grecian Urn’ during a really productive yet destructive period in my life,” he says. “I would sometimes go days on end without sleeping, writing and recording music all night in my room and then listening to those recordings through headphones over and over again in bed. The lyrics are inspired in part by the ​John Keats​ poem, ​‘Ode on a Grecian Urn,’ in which the speaker examines the images painted on an ancient vase, exploring what it means to be frozen in a moment of time for all eternity. At the time, I was fresh out of a relationship, unhappy at my job, and uncertain of my future, and could very much relate to the idea of being in limbo, paralyzed by inaction and unsure of how to move forward.” Put this one on simmer.

MATING RITUAL, “Haven’t Had Enough (Of Being Young)”

If it’s the first Friday of the month, there must be a new single from brothers Ryan Marshall Lawhon and Taylor Lawhon. That’s Mating Ritual’s plan for 2021, and as the follow-up to February’s “Tell Me You Don’t Love Me,” here’s their new, dancey bauble, perfect for anyone who feels as if the pandemic has aged them 10 years instead of just one. “‘Haven’t Had Enough (Of Being Young)’ is presumably a feeling shared by all at some point in our lives, but the pandemic has forced that feeling of lost time over this past year,” Ryan Lawhon says. “Everyone grows up eventually, but we want it to be on our terms.”

MELPO MENE, “Wrong at Last”

L.A.-based Swede Erik Mattiasson, in his Melpo Mene guise, is on a roll. The follow-up to January’s “All of This Is True,” is the fourth single he’s released since last October and another example of his emotive pop finery. At some point, we should expect an album announcement (he hasn’t relesed one since 2012), but for now you can get your ears (and mind) around “Wrong At Last.” “While most people are eager to be right all the time, a pessimist is actually dying to be wrong because it’s in the rare case of a pessimist being wrong that something was in fact better than estimated. Rather than regarding the glass as half-full or half-empty, may I suggest we look rather at its direction,” the songwriter says. “When we drink from a glass, we’re emptying it, so naturally, we should refer to the halfway mark as half-empty. When we pour into a glass, we’re filling it up, so naturally we should refer to halfway as half-full. Anyway, any actual message in pop music isn’t what is being said but how it’s being said.”