Okay Kaya drawn by Jessica Ganis, 2022, permission via CC ASA 4.0 license. Cropped to fit this blog post.
Note to readers: this blog contains brief mentions of sex, pedophilia, arson, drug abuse, gun violence, involuntary commitment, and more while discussing music that covers such themes.
Listeners now may not recognize how old the concept of an album as a narrative device is. The history of the concept album is murky, the history of strictly narrative albums with characters, setting, and a climax are murkier. Some say, including literary review writers at the University of Connecticut, that “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by The Beatles started the idea. Paul McCartney (alongside Boston-based radio station WERS) traces the Beatles’ inspiration to Frank Zappa’s “Freak Out!” released in 1966.
Album cover for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by The Beatles.
Fiona Sturges at The Independent goes further, saying that commercially available song collections including a broader narrative may have originated with Woody Guthrie in the 1940s. If you consider musicals or opera as part of this history, you can go back centuries. Even in spite of its unclear origins, the narrative album continues to be a significant and growing part of contemporary music.
Released in March of this year, “Shy at First” by Cootie Catcher is a nostalgic electronic twist on the indie pop formula. This delightful venture into indietronica is overflowing with earnestness. Starting from the name of the album alone, we are greeted with the idea of people figuring out how to be people. The album touches on unspoken things that bother us when trying to navigate our personal relationships and explores these themes with a joyful through line.
Forget-me-not flower clusters. Image by Sophia Dutton-Rodkin
We all have our good and bad days. Some days, you feel like skipping down the street or singing in the shower while others make you feel like the whole world is against you.
Oftentimes when I’m feeling the former, I like to listen to happy and upbeat music. I like to be embraced and supported by similar energies. A good example of this would be “Walking On Sunshine” by Katrina & The Waves.
When it comes to feeling the latter, what should one listen to? If someone is sad and down in the dumps, should they listen to “Washing Machine Heart” by Mitski? Likewise if someone is upset or angry, should they listen to “Bleed the Freak” by Alice in Chains? Would it be better to listen to someone happy and upbeat to facilitate that emotion?
Two classic Russian books, "Dunno on the Moon" and "Alice in Wonderland." Image by Sophia Dutton-Rodkin
Whether English or Spanish or Swahili or Japanese, learning a new language is always going to be a challenge. One of the best ways to help with language learning is to immerse oneself in media content with that language being the primary.
I grew up with a couple languages being thrown around the house. Between having lessons from my parents, school, the fact that my grandparents didn’t speak English and passive media consumption, I was able to pretty successfully grow up juggling three languages and being able to communicate decently.
Movie Poster for Russian adaptation of “The Town Musicians of Bremen,” an originally German fairy tale.
I’m sure having to speak the languages on a daily basis had a significant impact. I spoke with both parents, had workbook assignments and readings daily. I remember that my folks had a rule for me about what kind of television I could be watching. I was only allowed to watch films or shows with English dub on weekends and only foreign films and shows during the week. This was mostly childrens’ series and cartoon or animated films. My own father has shared several anecdotes from my childhood of me using a word or phrase properly which he had never used in front of me.
I also remember growing up with music in these respective languages, among others. My childhood playlist was a modge-podge of classical music, German oom-pah celebratory, Italian disco, Russian pop and rock, Spanish ballads etc.
As I got older, I realized that I spoke one of those languages too formally. Having had most of my exposure from children’s and limited adult media, speaking to my parents and grandparents, some more traditional and pop music, it made perfect sense that I wouldn’t have known slang, expletives, and casual language.
After realizing the problem, I decided to pay more attention to my speech with vocabulary and pronunciation and such. I also made a point to find some more modern music in that language. After a few months of combined active and passive effort, I was more comfortable with some slang and profanity. I felt more comfortable to speak among people in a peer setting rather than a professional or familial one.
Russian rave singer, Lida at Teen City Day (2023). Image provided by Okras, licensed CC ASA 4.0 International.
Obviously, there is so much work that goes into learning a language. No matter how you spin that web, there will always be hard work. Just turning the TV onto your favorite sitcom with a French dub won’t get you anywhere without consistency, immersion, and someone to actually talk to. Learning another language is like anything: the more you practice the easier it becomes. But just because the work is hard and there’s a lot of it, doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some fun thrown in. Learning another language is fun and exciting and opens up so many avenues for culture, music, media and just other people and their stories.
A playful and spooky lantern prop put on the stage for The Crane Wives. (Photo by Emily Heiges)
On May 13th, 2025, The Crane Wives played at The Ritz, Raleigh, as part of their “Beyond, Beyond, Beyond” tour. The tour is named for the band’s latest album, which was released in September of last year. “Beyond, Beyond, Beyond” is the band’s fifth studio album. The Crane Wives have been releasing music since 2011, during the heyday of indie folk.
