Alt to the J ∆

As funky as my title may sound, as funky the subject! Or almost.. Because it is not quite funk I want to talk about today, but instead my favorite band at the moment: Alt-J (∆).
If you do not know Alt-J, you may wonder what their name means. It’s actually kind of cool!

If you know your Macs, you would know that when you push the “Alt” and then the “J” key, it is a shortcut for the ∆ sign. (I must say I did not know before I got interested in Alt-J, since I don’t own a Mac). Also; if you know your mathematics, you will know that the ∆ sign is called “delta” and means change or difference, which can be either positive or negative.

Photo from AOTY

To say a little more informative about the band, I can tell it consists of 4 English men, who play guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and of course sing.  

The first time I heard them was on the radio (of course, too much radio). Their song “Tessellate” was played a lot for a period, and I fell totally in love! Their sound are kind of indie meets rock meets alternative… ish. They are such an artistic band, with a great talent of timing, experimenting with sounds and the singing is nothing but amazing!

Where the wild things are

But the thing I love the most (besides the amazing sounds) is their lyrics. Every piece of lyric contains so much emotion, history and feeling. They make their own universes, sometimes by lending a piece of others. For example Breezeblocks, where they are referring to the children’s book Where the wild things are by singing "I’ll eat you whole", or in Matilda, where they refer to the movie Léon throughout the song.

Matilda from Léon

They have gotten a lot of critique for their song Fitzpleasure though, because the song is about a gang-rape scene from a rather harsh book called Last exit to Brooklyn. I think the critique is absolutely unfair. Such a subject as taboo as rape should definitely be discussed! I think it is very noble of them to make a spotlight on the very serious subject, and I do not believe that they praise the horrible subject; they rather make it a subject for discussion, which is the way forwards.

But since I could talk about and analyze all of their songs to death, I think I’d rather stop that talk here.

To end with some positive energy and good karma, here’s a picture of me with a necklace I got from one of my best friends at my birthday. She bought it in Alt-J’s merchandise, and it is of course their ∆ sign. To top it, I have made their hand-sign, which I believe they have invented themselves! (That just confirms how well thought through the band is, doesn't it?). 

I hope you enjoyed my post, and if you thought that at least some of this sounded interesting, you should check out their debut album An Awesome Wave – it is definitely worth it!!

Loads of love!

Freja