Right now, in the United States, you can be fired from your job and therefore lose both your income and, in many cases, your health insurance and more if you accurately quote the consistent inflammatory political views of a public figure—not even a government official, nor politician—that was recently assassinated. This came after years of similar censorship regarding the ongoing genocide in Palestine by Israel. Those of us even slightly to the left of our vitriolic and hateful president may be left to wonder just how and why our country could have come to such a state; those to the left of his precedents have known the answers for quite some time, and many recognize the repeating patterns from childhoods stained with jingoism and a crashed housing market and the years we’ve lived in the society such an atmosphere produced.
Jeff Tobias’ “Political Solution” explores this dread, knowing all along what was to come and spending years under the pressure of it, through a hypnotic showcase of mastery over the acoustic and digital soundscapes. His SubmitHub page describes his upcoming project, “One Hundredfold Now in This Age”, as a work that “insists that we can’t look away from the world, and that in fact, we may have a fighting chance of changing it if we’re able to take it on together”. If this track is included in the final project, the intellectual substance of “Political Solution” ‘s lyrics comes off as the condensation of this thesis. We’re led in by sweeping sine and plucky square waves before this track’s quiet, mumbling vocals (by Fatherdude) kick in:
it’s no secret
I’m a man
caught in my time
lookin’ at a bad horizon
from within a management
jet propulsion
speeding towards a close frontier
falling forward into motion
nursing one and only fear
The first line of the second verse stands out to me in particular for what many today argue to be the shift that spelled doom for the nation in a way no one else could have anticipated; the terror attacks of 9/11 on the World Trade Center are invoked with a mention of “jet propulsion“, and none in any quadrant of the Overton window can deny that event changed the tone of American politics, both domestically and internationally, since 2001. This ability to contextualize the climate of today through the events preceding it implies a healthy level of material analysis on Tobias’ part. The chorus then lays out the rationalized foundation that led to a decades-long national unraveling:
we wanted a
political solution
something big, and we
were offered something small
we’re painted in
and running out of options
and nothing seems that slow
anymore
Ever since the new millennium, the American populace has entered a familiar cycle of constituent outrage to federal indifference as the imperial agenda of the 21st century marches onward. The overwhelm is captured well in Tobias’ simple, yet heavy lyrics focusing on the impact rather than naming anything directly; this lends the song an eerie, cynical timelessness that could be laid over several different snapshots of the country over the past few decades.
A brief instrumental break allows for an expertly executed violin solo from guest violinist Mari Rubio (More Eaze). The solo is highly technical, with quick runs and jumps between octaves, even alternating between arco and pizzicato to give a sense of discombobulation. The effect is all too appropriate when capturing the emotional impact mentioned previously; the line “nothing seems that slow anymore“, likely in reference to how a heightened awareness of global politics leads to the understanding, in the current moment, that our civil rights are being repeatedly and consistently threatened in new ways every day—this line feels especially fitting to precede this lost, yet desperate and determined sound, the sound of someone struggling to stand as the rug is repeatedly pulled out from under their feet.
I’ve been called naive
and I have been called worse
in the process of correction
‘tween the cradle and the purse
Something Americans of my generation likely heard often growing up, if their parents were conservative and they began to show signs of deviation from that ideology, is a phrase I had heard attributed to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “If you’re young and not a liberal, you don’t have a heart; if you grow and aren’t conservative, you don’t have a brain”. The idea that leftism as a whole is naive or immature is a pervasive one in the American conservative zeitgeist, though it often runs concurrent to the narrative of the left as a militant and authoritarian coalition. The enemy must be both weak and strong under fascism. I theorize the intent behind this duality is not only to manufacture consent for violence against a regime’s political opponents, but to better condition its citizens— truthfully, workers and prospective workers, from its view—to an ideology better-serving to capitalism, as the conservatives’ stated motives are economic if not moral in nature. The idea that these motives are entirely genuine is a flawed one, of course, yet these specific motivations do not arise from nowhere; in an economy where there must be an exploited class of people in order to function, the idea of dehumanizing and objectifying people being normalized in society is likely an attractive one.
I’ve been flattered by
suggestions of design
‘cuz this man is made from nature,
nature can’t commit a crime
Here, Tobias’ lyrics could hint at the phenomenon of the political center and far right accusing those to their left of being “bots”, often supposedly sourced from countries the United States has or does call its enemy, to attempt to discredit their opponent. This could also, in the more abstract sense, refer to the idea that leftists “indoctrinate” the young or naive—as if any political ideology is at all innate instead of learned and developed over time like any other personal values.
The lyrics speak to an experience growing up against the grain above a steady substrate of synth and drums (courtesy of Scott Smith, or the President of the Drums) that intensify with each verse. The addition of overlaid vocal samples for a choir-like effect to emphasize the last two lines of the second verse’s second stanza gives a divine contrast to hear against a praise of nature’s creation, pleasing to the ear, while subtly tongue-in-cheek.
Jeff Tobias does not neglect the privilege that shielded many Americans from understanding why the phenomenon we have experienced in the past (and, arguably, are experiencing now) is called “the imperial boomerang“. Instead, Tobias portrays the realization as it came to many of us, no matter when it came: when it hit us too close to home.
but,
it was obvious
I was ignorant
it was never gonna go our way
in a hospital
I was shown that
you can try to buy,
but they just take
my father was
a public high school teacher
and he trusted in the
books from which he taught
Here, Tobias shows brief vignettes that tell us both nothing and everything. The image of someone, be it the lyricist or vocalist or even ourselves, in a hospital struggling both with ill health and the realization that even when we’re healthy, we’ll just be saddled with medical debt; our parents, figures that likely devoted everything they could to a country that only showed how much less they could care about them, despite that devotion and trust, with every passing year—again, one’s ideology is influenced by their learned and lived experiences, with the latter sometimes even correcting the former with time.
Just before the final chorus, the vocals are blended into the mounting instrumental to produce an effect between a madrigal and a call-and-answer. While this is to the detriment of the lyric’s legibility, the auditory effect is stunning and spectacular. Production and mixing are just as much an art form as the composition and performance of music itself; while a good band can absolutely nail a recording, it is ultimately up to the sound engineer to make that band pop. Though I’d touched on it earlier, this layering of vocals is something that appears easy, yet can be time-consuming and requires a healthy sense of rhythm and technical savvy to pull off the effect Jeff Tobias has.
“One Hundredfold Now in This Age” is described as “a way of understanding what we’re fighting against and why”. This sentiment certainly rings true to me in the context of “Political Solution”, as the track works to emphasize the pathos of the mid-2020s American leftist’s struggle and perseverance in the face of despair. The unique mix of futuristic synths and organic instruments depicts a sonic struggle caught only by our subconscious or a trained ear, leaving listeners with the impression that they are effectively wedged in the space between two points in time. Made with tender consideration, hope, and righteous indignation, Jeff Tobias’ “Political Solution” speaks to its frustrated and weary listeners, relates to them, and inspires hope for a better future within them. This speaks of great promise for the whole of “One Hundredfold Now in This Age”, projected to release on October 17th via Repeating Cloud. “Political Solution” is available as of September 19th.
Written by Alexei Lee
