I have been reckoning with how I view music and art as a whole—what makes a good piece, do I “enjoy” art properly, etc. I have been a “music nerd” in the traditional sense for so long that I have grown tired of the conventional circuit of acclaimed albums, new and old. Instead, I have found more and more enjoyment in pursuing and occasionally uncovering obscure or unconventional art purely for the sake of it, not necessarily bound to their inherent quality. At the same time, I have had a stubborn, maybe even slightly performative, resistance to pursuing musical projects based on assumed novelty—you know, unconventional style mashups, weird-sounding genre and artist location combinations; the type of stuff that gets a few shallow videos made about it on TikTok and then becomes obscure again. There are also projects that seem to lean into these novelties for the sake of it, usually by online music nerds who know that the weird genre covers, tracklists and genre combinations that interest them will probably interest those just like them as well.
On the surface, you would think all of these things apply to “folx” by friends&. A “glitch-pop” “rock opera” with strong elements of “cosmic country?” A somewhat hidden, convoluted narrative about labor in the 21st century? One hundred twelve tracks, about half of which are a few seconds long with extended quotes from sociological texts as titles? The track titles for the actual songs having, like, five parts to each of them? The tracklist is over 10,000 characters! And why would they title the album that, out of all things? There is no denying there is a great amount of novelty to the project, but the rule for me, and I think for most, is that it does not matter as long as there is significant substance in the album beyond its external quirkiness. I certainly expected something unique and exciting. I discovered the album a few days before its release when the only ones who had heard it were friends of the group, some of whom I knew, who all seemed to treat the project with intense reverence beyond what they may normally do for their friends. I first listened to the project 30 minutes after its release when I was abruptly reminded of its existence by a friend; as I listened, I found it difficult to dispute that aforementioned reverence, and found myself more and more inclined to feel the same way.
“folx” is about a lot of things, as the Bandcamp description—along with the album’s extensive “citations” list and its informal description written by numerous collaborators simultaneously in one now-lost Google Doc—will tell you. I could probably spend this entire article listing things the record is about, but to summarize some of the major themes mentioned in the description(s): It is about labor in the 21st century, the effect of capitalist accelerationism on art and folk music especially, the concept of the internet “shitpost” as an art form and various related elements of the personal life of jc of friends&. The album is his brainchild of eight years, created in an unspecified amount of collaboration with members of the friends& collective, the existence of which seems to have largely been defined by the buildup to this project. Listed in the aforementioned citations list of over 200 items, you will find the album samples from old folk and country music, late 2000s/early 2010s pop music, video games, “My Little Pony,” The Beatles and Hatsune Miku. You will also find that most of the track titles are quotes from sociological texts by Karl Marx, Mark Fischer and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guttari. Only by listening—and probably reading the lyrics for each track on bandcamp—can you find how all of this contributes to a singular, balls-to-the-wall narrative that could take a whole seminar to analyze.
There is a chance absolutely none of the above made this album sound appealing to you, let alone gave you a good understanding of it. While I do think “folx” is an amazing album, what I find more important is how enigmatic it is. It makes you do weird things like listening to it until 3 a.m. the night of its release when you have to wake up at 7:30 a.m., or writing a whole article about it when you have the most work you have had for the entire semester. You could try to evaluate it as objectively and critically as you want, but what more could a work of art hope to do? Writing this article feels less like a comprehensive review, which I do not think I am capable of for this album—merton’s pseudo-official review on Rate Your Music is infinitely better and worth a read if you are interested in cultural theory at all, which I usually am not. Instead, this article is more of an expression of how much gratitude this album has made me feel for the continued production of authentic, hopeful art in the face of, you know, everything—a significant theme of the album itself.
There is this sentiment I see sometimes that truly independent music is dead or waning, or has been hijacked by “industry plants” and “nepo babies.” But how are you going to assess patently non-commercial music by its commercial success? No matter how unprofitable or how little direct influence it has on mainstream popular culture, independent art is alive and well and will be for as long as art itself is—and I do not know if anything before “folx” has ever made me feel so sure of it.
nice article , Folx is my album of the year and probably ten years. I went to OSU and wished that our music scene allowed for this kind of freeform expression (our student radio was endlessly cliquey). whats your rym man I wanna follow you.