If you’ve ever been greeted by your sunburnt uncle with a stern slap to the back followed by a question regarding your unemployment, or if you really just want to spend your disposable income on an overpriced brunch at a Cafè called Brunch, then you’re a raging millennial just like me.
Never fear my flat white-ordering, iPhone-wielding posse, Tiny Little Houses are here with their new album Idiot Proverbs, to provide us with a stark reminder that our generation is… well, pretty much fucked.
Idiot Proverbs paints a bleak picture, but one rooted in a sense of unification. If we as a generation are going down, at least we’re going down together.
Beloved Melbourne locals Tiny Little Houses gave us sneak a peak into their gluten-free cookie jar by releasing singles in late 2017 Entitled Generation and Garbage Bin. Idiot Proverbs continues to serenade the iGeneration, plagued by anti-romanticism and innocent narcissistic attitudes. Although, the album revels in this notion.
We are a generation simultaneously given endless opportunities but alas, these opportunities seem to be in anything but abundance. We’re the idiots, and the proverbs are the false beliefs we had growing up that one day we’d be astronauts and doctors. Instead, we’re fighting about who’s playing the support character over our PlayStation headsets.
Poignant opening track Garbage Bin sets the tone with the line “There’s still a lot of opportunity if you look around, But I’m running out of luck, I’m stuck earning 15 bucks”. Moving ahead and listening to the title track, Tiny Little Houses reach an equilibrium of rebellion and honesty, calling out the bullshit that we as kids have grown to believe; that we can be, and do, anything.
The title track is a collection of proverbs in itself, each line’s vocals exacerbating these falsified commandments; “our dreams were obscene, we were gonna be Astronauts, gonna be presidents, live on the silver screen”.
Although bleak, there is a sense of communal anguish that’s inspired from such a perturbing notion – we’re all in this ride together, so let’s make something happen. It’s almost impossible not to mention an evident influence from The Pixies in this track. How else to portray such a striking conviction of false-hope than with quite literally the anthem of emptiness, Where Is My Mind?, a sample seemingly hidden in the background of Idiot Proverbs.
But don’t let this existentialist dread fool you, TLH do show their soft spots of songwriting past in love song Caroline. It almost feels wrong to quote lyrics from this track, because of how personal the song feels. All I ‘gotta say is that she’s one lucky gal.
“Could everyone get off my back, cut me some slack…. had a panic attack, I’m still my worst enemy”, are just some of the unintentionally heart-wrenching lines from the closing track Drag Me, leaning toward spoken word. The song is about being a big name in a small town, then being a small name in a big city. It’s something that I’m sure we have all felt, being such big-dreaming millennials, but something that we can communalise ourselves amongst.
With evident nods and homage to mid-’90s garage and experimental rock such, Tiny Little Houses have sprinkled influence seamlessly through Idiot Proverbs, offering a refreshingly honest and relative realisation that we are a generation of dreamers.
We’ve been fed lies that have filled us with falsified hopes and goals, but hey, at least we’re together. That’s something at least.
Catch Tiny Little Houses live in Australia on any of the dates below. Idiot Proverbs is out now.
Saturday 24 February | Karova Lounge | Ballarat, VIC | Tickets
Friday 2 March | Corner Hotel | Melbourne, VIC | Tickets
Saturday 3 March | Republic Bar | Hobart, TAS | Tickets
Thursday 8 March | Wollongong Uni Bar | Wollongong, NSW | Tickets
Friday 9 March | Oxford Arts Factory | Sydney, NSW | Tickets
Saturday 10 March | Brightside | Brisbane, QLD | Tickets
Friday 16 March | Jack Rabbit Slims | Perth, WA | Tickets
Saturday 17 March | Fat Controller | Adelaide, SA | Tickets