This Is Pop?

Of all things, it is presumably a swan song to all hope with which the Lebanese dream-pop band Postcards report back after the year 2020, that was rich in tragedies for its members. The track Home is so Sad, inspired by Philip Larkin’s poem of the same name, resembles a stocktaking which bewilderedly lists all the disasters. There are the protests against corrupt political elites in 2019 and 2020 that fizzled out, the catastrophic explosion of the Beirut port on August 4th, 2020, which destroyed half the city, Lebanon’s complete political failure, and last but not least the Corona pandemic, the effects of which shook the entire country.

Home is so Sad laments the wounds on one’s own body and mourns the loss of any safety. Musically, the scarred wistfulness of the ballad is countered by drums pounding like being out of their minds. Towards the end, a distorted guitar joins this drumbeat against all pain. No question, in this tender rebellion against resignation lies the power of a new beginning, which will hopefully already take place in the album After the Fire, Before the End announced for autumn 2021. Enjoy!