St. Lucia (2024)

One Liner:  80's synth pop renaissance with a few good songs and then <sound of Pac Man dying>

Wikipedia Genre: Indie electronic, synthpop, new wave, electropop

Home: South Africa to Liverpool to Brooklyn to Germany

Poster Position: Late Addition
Weekend Two Only.
Friday at 5:30.

IHG Stage.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2016, and it is an interesting thing.  Eight years later, my brain still confused them with a different band called Saint Motel who are significantly better.

Saint Lucia is an island in the eastern Caribbean that was originally colonized/taken by the French, and then England took control.  Those fools fought 14 different wars to switch control of the island over the years, with England the final victor, until it became independent in 1979.

Here is what I said in 2016: "I had predicted these guys, based on their inclusion in the lineups for two of the other major festivals.  At the time, I said that I thought they were another band (I think I was thinking of Saint Motel) but said that because they are electronic we are likely destined to have them.  And here we are.  This is more of that 80's retro synth pop, and while I want to dislike it out of hand, I've actually really enjoyed some of these songs.  They remind me of the radio stations on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.  Oh no, now I got to "Love Somebody" and this is why I wanted to dislike this band out of hand.  Blurg.  But, let's stick to the good stuff here so that you can get suckered into going to see them live!"

The band itself appears to actually just be one dude.  Jean-Philip Grobler is South African by birth but Wikipedia claims both that he is based in Konstanz, Germany and that his origin is Brooklyn, NY.  Not sure how to reconcile all of that.  Apparently his stage name is after a town in South Africa, not the island nation.  He started making music when he was 12, inspired by 80's acts like Michael Jackson, Sting, and Phil Collins.  Checks out.  He moved from South Africa to Liverpool at age 19 to study music at university, and after three years he moved to Brooklyn.  He got to work with like-minded acts like Passion Pit and Foster the People, as he was getting his own stuff going.  In 2021, he moved to Germany to be closer to his wife's family.  I guess that is where Wikipedia gets it all.  My bad.

Four albums (2012's When the Night, 2016's Matter, 2018's Hyperion, and 2022's Utopia) along with some EPs and a pile of singles.  The most popular track on Spotify is "Dancing on Glass," and it hammers the sunshine synths all the way to the promised land.  76.5 million streams.

This one is from that 2016 album - I definitely recognize it, although I am not sure if that is from listening to this band in 2016 or because they are getting radio play.  I really like that.  Then the second-most streamed is from the debut album and is called "Elevate."  75 million streams.

Just try to be crabby when that song is playing.  Just try!  You, over there stalking this blog in your black trenchcoat and Panic! at the Disco-brand eyeliner, give in!  You know this made you want to give a kiss to Molly Ringwald and take one of her diamond earrings from her!  You know it!   

"All Eyes on You," also from that debut album is interesting here in 2024. Here, listen to it.  40.1 million streams.  What do you hear?

I hear all three of the recent Taylor Swift albums and the Jack Antonoff production thing of quiet synth production and bare, confessional vocals soaring over the top.  This absolutely sounds like something cribbed to create the TayTay monster.  Stinking Jack Antonoff.  

Anyway, those two first two singles are really very good.  Hard to deny the soft caress they give to my pleasure centers and the undeniable danceability.  But, I've got to say that a foray through the entire catalog leaves me less enamored with the guy.  The new albums have very low stream counts - 2.7 million for the top track from the newest disc.  Not terrible music by any stretch of the imagination, just unmemorable synth pop that sails along under the ears' radar until something else comes on.  That top song is called "Touch."  I'll give it to you to get a feel for what I mean.

Like I have said before, didn't we all move on from this music on purpose a long time ago?  Pretty sure Hair Metal won, and then Grunge won, and then Rap won, and now everything is so fractured that people thing a generic Talk Talk redux song is new and exciting.  This feels like a guy ACL could call in for a favor when they needed a last minute schedule filler after Catfish and Tyla dropped out on them.