A Clockwork Marshmallow

What's it going to be then, eh?

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, George, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry.

These are the opening lines to Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, the tale of the ultimate anti-hero, young Alex. I’m assuming most people reading this will be familiar with the Book or Film but I’ll quickly summarise the plot for those who aren’t. It’s the story of Alex, leader of a teenage gang who is sent to prison after an act of ‘Ultraviolence’. Alex is reformed after serving only two years of his sentence using a controversial new technique rendering him unable to experience violence in any form without feeling a great sickness. Upon his release he is used as a political pawn…..wait a second, why am I reviewing A Clockwork Orange? A nice young lad from a small town in New York State called Connor Thoutte has sent me a track to review so let’s get to it.

Connor Thouttle is an acoustic singer songwriter from the small town of Liverpool, New York. His music is strongly influenced by the works of Jack Johnson and John Mayer, in other words Soppy Marshmallow Music. Connor has released two Albums to date, 2009’s Sunblind and his latest effort Caught Between Summers, from which I’m reviewing the title track of the same name.

The song Caught Between Summers is a kind of melancholic ‘I understand you under confident but beautiful girl with complex emotions’ ramble, which opens with the lines

There’s something wrong my dear friend,

Looks like you just got back from the Doctors again

There’s something that you mean to say

The good lord he is on his way.

Oh dear, a religious cancer song, not what I’m in the mood for on a Sunday morning. I was tempted to leave the review at that but to be fair to Connor I thought I would try and be a bit more objective. After all I think Connor’s target audience are a bit younger and more feminine than your humble narrator.

In trying to listen as a Teenage girl I see what Connor is trying to do here with his subtle emotional manipulation. You can imagine the scenario in which he would profess these emotionally exuberant lyrics. Connor sits by himself at a High school Prom looking into the distance with his spongy little gumdrop eyes. The girl he’s been lusting over in Biology for the last 4 years comes over and asks Connor ‘what’s wrong’. He opens up his heart about his best friend who has cancer, they then sit and talk about emotions all night and she realises that there is more to this little science geek than she thought. Later on after a few drinks they go back to Connor’s bedroom, sitting staring into each others eyes, they slowly undress each other, She runs her fingers through his marshmallow hair, Kisses his marshmallow chest, then Connor pull’s out his little flump tadger and with a mixture of horror and disappointment, she laughs in his face. It’s at this point marshmallow boy cry’s tears of hot chocolate and slowly melts into a pile of sticky goop. As she walks home, confused at Connors demise, she bumps into Alex and his droogs. Well, Well, Well. And they give that fine Devotchka the old in out real horrorshow, right right.

So what’s the point of all this Chepooka, well we have Connor and Alex, the two extremes of the teenage male archetype, Alex the ultraviolent sociopath and Connor the Christian goody goody. Connor’s music is clean cut, fresh sounding, his lyrics are well structured and intelligent and he is a talented singer, but he needs a little Alex to add some, as Roland Barthes might say, Grain to his voice. Maniac Alex spots something he wants and almost without thinking will take it, relying on his natural adolescent charm and charisma to see him through the consequences. It’s that immediacy and honesty that Connor needs to explore so he can rise above the thousands of other boring Marshmallow Men. There’s nothing wrong with wistful observation, it’s the ultimate Mallow trope, but sometimes you have to say Fuck through gritted teeth.

To summarise Connor is a talented singer from a small American town and I guess Caught Between Summers is a listenable tune. If he went on American Idol armed with his cancer story he may very well get passed the first few rounds. They may even create an emotional montage of him with Coldplay playing in the background. But I find his music frustrating. Every teenage boy has the Connor/Alex dialectic inside them, there is nothing wrong with letting that ‘Ultraviolet’ side out once in a while, it’s the fight between these two sides that creates the teenage angst found in all of my favourite adolescent observational music. Let’s hear the real you next time Connor.

One last thing, I think Connor sent me this in the hope of a quote for his press pack so what the fuck,

Connor is the new Bob Dylan, a future Rock and Roll hall of Famer without question

Kenny Maclean, UUC.