Aaron Maine has spent the last decade exploring various shades of moody indie rock under the moniker Porches — from the noisy, guitar-centric catharsis of his debut Slow Dance in the Cosmos, to the icy, minimalist synth pop of his breakout follow-up Pool, to the warmer, more maximalist turns on his Covid release All Day Gentle Hold !. Throughout it all, Maine’s music has always retained a sense of melancholy and alienation, with a yearning vulnerability that underpins even his most danceable tracks.
"Joker," the best single so far from Porches upcoming album, Shirt, trades in that yearning vulnerability for some eerie character writing. Maine spends the song’s two-minute runtime outlining two ambiguous relationships — one with a pet dog and one with a lover of some sort — that grow more and more unsettling as the song progresses and the lines between the two begin to blur (is he kissing his dog on the mouth? He keeps his lover in a well??). It feels reminiscent of Alex G, a friend and collaborator who also thrives in describing blurry relationships — Friend? Enemy? Lover? Pet? Some combination of the above? — and has his own fair share of dark, animal-themed tunes (“kute” anyone?).
Musically, the song has a loopable catchiness to it, making it easy to miss the sinister undertones of the lyrics. A persistent kick drum, campfire guitar, and sing-song melody give the track a rhythmic bounce, and turn “Joker” into an unexpected earworm.
The result is a vaguely ominous pop ditty that feels like a natural outgrowth from Maine's previous work. “Joker” stretches out into new lyrical and musical territory for Porches, and bodes well for the rest of the album to come.
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