Worlds by Jason Lee. Cover image by John Nyboer.
Imagine if you will the drummer of one of your favorite post-punk/garage-rock type grrrl bands known for songs that wed the saturnalian to the sardonic (e.g., Pleasure Seekers, Babes in Toyland, Wet Leg) suddenly went solo and switched from drums to keyboards/vocals and started making perky, unironic West Coast sunshine pop with folkish/countryish overtones (think The Association, The 5th Dimension, or more recently, the Lemon Twigs) with a touch of pastoral psych-pop thrown in for good measure and a proclivity for swoonily sensuous ballads (think Nancy Sinatra, Olivia Newton-John, or more recently, Waxahatchee) well you’d maybe find it a little startling tho’ not in a bad way assuming yr as into the magic of ONJ’s greatest hits as we are…
…but hey guess what you don’t have to imagine cuz Brooklyn-based artist Janet LaBelle (born and raised in North Jersey) has gone from “Mermaid Sex Slave” to having her “Day in the Sun” with the former being a song put out by riotous psych-garage threesome Sharkmuffin about a decade ago featuring LaBelle on the skins, and the latter being the song she released just today as a solo artist that by all means oughta be the feel good hit of the late summer, and granted the stylistic shift hasn’t quite so stark as what we’re suggested given that Janet’s been making winningly winsome pop songs going back to her Sharkmuffin days (not to mention fronting her own Jersey-based pop-punk band, Avery, previously) but we’re going with the linear chronology in which we discovered her music and it’s all about us obviously…
…with “Day in the Sun” being a revelation even within Janet LaBelle’s solo oeuvre seeing as her previous music has leaned more towards the adult-contemporary and so-called AM pop side of things tho’ who amongst you knows what the heck “AM” even means (!) whereas “Day” more closely evokes post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys at a time with the band was moving away from its “fun in the sun” surf-rock origins and towards the more Baroque folk-pop and pastoral psychedelia they favored in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s wedded to guileless lyrics about wind chimes and vegetables and fall turning to winter with Brian Wilson happily playing in his sandbox for hours on end whilst dropping LSD and projecting himself into the endless blue of the Pacific Ocean as the other Beach Boys got heavily into transcendental mediation and the Maharishi…
…which in no way is meant to imply that Janet LaBelle was inspired by sandboxes or acid trips or Hindu mystics when writing “Day in the Sun” (not that it’s outside the realm of possibility!) but either way it’s a song that explicitly takes place in her mind’s eye with Janet reminiscing about a recent idyllic trip to the California coastline going hiking with a good friend and “all the things that you said to me / that filled me with warmth / on a trail / down by the sea” while wistfully acknowledging that “if we never ever went back at all […] I could go there alone / I could go there in my mind / I could go there with you by my side” which is both sweet and a little bittersweet too…
…especially where combined with the song’s infectiously bop-worthy loping beat and major-key keyboard chord progression set to the perfect tempo for briskly perambulating along a nature trail with a winding, buoyant melody further uplifted by a supportive chorus of brass and additional harmonies casting a spell that could be described as lushly opulent and woozily shambolic in equal measure like a late-summer hangover on the verge of fall’s regal color scheme as in music that’ll make you wanna run through a sea of dandelions with your long and lustrous flat-ironed hair flowing behind in slow motion cuz you can only run so fast in skin tight, high-waisted jeans and Earth shoes…
Take me to the place
between mountains and river,
like Artemis twins searching for a secret
to reflect on
a solution to end all suffering
…but then there’s the slightest whiff of melancholy under the surface too like in the song’s brief intro which acts as a pensive prelude like dawn moments before the morning’s first rays rise above the horizon, and in lyrics like the ones above acknowledging humankind’s endless, fruitless search for an end to all suffering but still ya gotta try all the same like Apollo’s twin sister Artemis endlessly roaming the forests and mountains with her entourage of nymphs attending to the health and wellbeing of women and children especially but even the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, vegetation, and childbirth was known to screw up sometimes (all the Greek gods did which makes them highly relatable) like the time the young and naïve hunter Actaeon happened upon her bathing naked thus prompting Artemis to turn him into a deer which his hunting dogs took as their cue to devour him whole…
…but still ya gotta try especially in these dark, uncertain days which is precisely why the world needs undefiled, upbeat sunshine pop now more than ever with love and mercy seemingly being in ever more short supply in the public sphere—with the best point of comparison being the early-to-mid ’70s when sunshine pop thrived, following on the heels of the multiple shocks and traumas of the ‘late 1960s and 1970—cuz and as much as we love music that leans into darkness, we also need a good dose of Vitamin D every now and then, with “Day in the Sun” providing well over the USDA’s recommended daily allowance meaning that one hit of the “Day in the Sun” will have you set for days (good luck tho’ not playing such an earworm song on repeat!) especially when taken together with its music video (shot and directed by Dustyn Hi-8) depicting Janet LaBelle strolling about in an actual oceanside forest amongst the rocky outcroppings and crashing waves, seas of yellow hydrangeas (note: we don’t know the actual breed of flower) and waterfall-adjacent hiking trails…
…and hey if it’s all a little too bright-hued and bushy-tailed for your tastes rest assured sunshine-pop bops not infrequently live a more dark-hued second life repurposed years later to satirical effect like in A Very Brady Sequel (1996) where the Brady clan annoy the sh*t out of their fellow passengers by performing a choreographed dance routine to “Good Time Music” in the aisles of an airplane about to take off, or how upbeat ditties are oft used to spooky effect in horror movies the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” playing over the final scene and ending credits of Halloween II as Michael Myers’ face burns to crisp (spoiler alert: he survives!)…
….or the more recent use of “You Are My Sunshine” in Annabelle: Creation etc. etc. and seeing as we’ve watched way too many horror movies this likely explains why we kept expected a slasher-style serial killer to pop up in the middle of the remote woods around the Morro Bay & Los Osos areas where “Day in the Sun” was shot much like Weyes Blood’s Friday the 13th-evoking “Everyday” (one of the best music vids of the past five years in our humble opinion, plus guess what (!) today’s Friday the 13th!) but don’t get it twisted we’re glad this didn’t happen cuz sometimes ya just gotta say can’t we just have nice things!?! and finally here’s some nice things to know about the song taken directly from the press release generously provided by Janet LB…
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Brooklyn-based songwriter, Janet LaBelle, releases her single, “Day in the Sun,” via her own label, Wild Violet Records.
LaBelle is a staple of the Brooklyn scene, as a front woman, a touring instrumentalist (most notably performing with Jimmy Destri of Blondie), and most importantly, a forward-thinking producer, rapidly turning song sketches into fleshed out nuanced works. With five EPs and several singles to date, “Day in the Sun,” is a sonic continuation of LaBelle’s previous releases, lyrically exploring her affinity for the California coastline and the meaningful simplicity of hiking with a friend.
“The year 2023 was such a turbulent year for so many of us, wrought with many unexpected challenges. “Day in the Sun,” however, was written about one of the most memorable moments in 2023 for me–It was the end of the year, and I was reflecting on the up’s and down’s that I had experienced. When I thought about the most enjoyable experiences I had that year, I remembered a hike with my friend on her birthday, and the joy I had meandering the trail with her as we shared laughs and philosophy. Sometimes these moments that seem fleeting can be the most monumental and therapeutic.”
“Day in the Sun” was recorded at Studio G in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, alongside producer Evan Taylor (Bernie Worrell, Purple Witch of Culver) and engineer Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, They Might Be Giants). “The recording process for “Day in the Sun” was magical and effortless,” LaBelle states, “It was especially enjoyable to write a song that would feature horns–something I had never done before.”
“Day in the Sun” will be released on Friday, September 13th alongside a music video. In support of her new release, LaBelle will be performing at Our Wicked Lady in Brooklyn, NY, on Tuesday, September 24th.
Credits:
Music & Lyrics by Janet LaBelle
Produced by Evan Taylor
Keyboards, vocals: Janet LaBelle
Drums, tambourine, bass, bass VI, guitars, backing vocals: Evan Taylor
Horn arrangement by Justin Mullens
Horns engineered by Peter Hess
Trumpet & French Horn: Justin Mullens
Tenor Sax, Bari Sax: Peter Hess
Engineered & Mixed by Tony Maimone at Studio G in Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Steve Berson at Total Sonic Media