Digital Escort – “Video Queen”
Digital Escort – “Video Queen” – Single Review
Holy Only Fans Batman!
Just kidding. There’s no reason to single out Only Fans when a single like this is just as much of a savage burn to you Tik Tok’ers & those out there constantly doin’ it all for The Gram.
You can practically hear the reaction of Beavis & Butthead listening to this track when Digital Escort hits the main hooks of “Video Queen,” headbanging on the couch and shouting, “Da na na na na na na na, da na na nanna na” along with the guitars surrounding the vocals. We’ve got pretty quintessential Digital Escort goin’ on here with this latest single, at least when it comes to the attitude and direction of this particular concept…though I suppose you could say that it’s disguised in a bit more of an accessible sound overall. I dunno…that make this cut even sweeter in a way, because there’s a damn good chance they’ll get some listeners singing along with this track before they clue in to what it is they’re actually singing along with, you know what I mean? That’s one of those beautiful things about catchy music – you can catch people in more ways than one, and I highly suspect that DE is gonna accomplish that in a variety of ways this time around. “Video Queen” is a pretty damn fierce cut and solid combination of a one-two punch when it comes right down to it…I feel fairly confident that their existing clients will be more than pleased by what they find here, and I feel like there could be enough here to add a few more names to their list as well. Maybe. It’s always hard to say with Digital Escort given how much they seem to practically send the mainstream away screaming in the other direction…but yeah…something about the hooks in here could be effective enough to convince a few more folks to start listening to this band.
Here’s a couple of examples of what you’re dealing with though, to highlight some of their lyricism for ya. “To get a dick off/to get your fuck on.” “You’re a big star now/from your dick taking skills.” “Grind your hips on just the tip/ladies strip to free the nip.” PROLIFIC! Am I getting all this correct? Look – if you were expecting the band that once released the single called “Fuckstar” to start meeting you in the middle with some kind of halfway prudish bullshit, you came to the wrong place partner. Digital Escort has always embraced their grating nature…whether it’s offending you by something they said, or making music that’s gonna appeal to a narrow slice of the potential audience out there by getting all kind of gnarly with what they do, they’ve owned every moment of who they are, and made no apologies for it. Nor should they! Like I was trying to explain – you know who owes you an apology? Those out there that half-ass the things they do, full stop. When you whole-ass everything, and you commit to the cause like Digital Escort does, you don’t owe anybody a damn thing. DE comes in to push record & blow your mind with something they did or something they said, and in most cases, it’s usually both. This new cut does seem like a fairly logical progression from where they were just at with their last single “Windshield,” and to a degree, kind of follows a similar formula of saving its fireworks for the chorus.
So…hmm…what do I think for real here? It can be so easy to get tangled up in the shock value of the situation…but this ain’t my first rodeo, nor is it my first experience with Digital Escort either. Listen – I like “Video Queen” when it comes right down to it, and by & large, I’m still incredibly perplexed that it can seem like this band’s music takes longer to catch on that I’d assume it was, despite how brutally explicit they can quite often be. Confidence and commitment has its own allure to it, and to me, that should be something that attracts a metric ton of people to the music of Digital Escort. What I’d like to hear from them in the future is a bit more balance of strengths in their material…they can tend to rely on the strengths of one killer aspect or part of their music to carry them through, and I think they’ve got a bit of room to grow in that regard still. You can look at it from the flipside of the coin too though – they have an incredible grip on how to take a song to the next level, and that’s on full display in songs like “Windshield” & their latest single “Video Queen.” The only reason the balance is of any concern at all is simply due to shorter attention spans & thresholds of patience in modern-day music listeners – they’re the same people that complain about character development & story building in movies & shows, and the same idiots that yell GE T TO THE CHORUS when you’re at a concert. Life ain’t always about instant gratification folks…sometimes you gotta let things work their magic on ya, and in cases like “Video Queen,” use contrast for the full effect. Essentially, would the chorus seem as explosive without the verses being a little more bare-bones? Probably not if I’m being honest with ya. All I’m suggesting is that I’ve rarely, if ever, heard Digital Escort go about it the other way. Switching up their approach just slightly to allow for a more balanced experience between the parts in their structure could end up being the key to getting them to catch on even more than they are. That doesn’t mean they can’t still find exciting ways to shift from verse to chorus – of course they can…but they probably don’t need to risk doing too little in one part so that they can explode when they do more in the next, make sense? They can crush it in a verse, then go on to crush it even more in the chorus and there’s no harm in that.
I don’t mind what they’ve got goin’ on in the verses of “Video Queen” for the most part, though I would argue that it’s much more similar to stuff I’ve heard than everything else that surrounds them in this song. The chorus is gonna be what listeners really remember in “Video Queen” – and hey, that ain’t a bad thing! It’s way better than having a song with nothing memorable about it whatsoever, or putting out something people will be entirely indifferent about. If you really want my opinion…and it appears that at least someone out there does…I’d tell ya that Digital Escort practically achieves the impossible with this latest single, and somehow makes the BRIDGE of a song one of the most interesting & engaging parts of this song, and when was the last time you remember thinking THAT about anything you heard? Beyond all that stuff, the band is really thriving in what they create right now and how they perform – I really feel like Digital Escort is still heading in the right direction, and sound like they’re getting the best outta their band from the music to the microphone lately. Because it IS all about commitment to the material, the conviction you find in them saying whatever the fuck they wanna say, and how convincing that combination is to our ears. I think any of us would be absolutely insane to think that a band that proudly dwells in the dark like Digital Escort does is gonna capture the whole heart and attention of the mainstream, but tracks like “Video Queen” should do go a long way to continue to solidify their fanbase.
Find out more about Digital Escort from their official page at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digitalesc
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