The word Prom for some reason automatically brings to mind Carrie White’s telekinesic destruction of her school, town, and most of the people in it after being humiliated at hers. Augustine is quite a cultured, gentle young chap though and this latest single of his, taken from his forthcoming debut album (his debut EP ‘Wishful Thinking’ won him the title of Pop Artist of the Year at the 2020 Swedish Independent Music Awards), is determined by the melange of emotions he has experienced during the last year, both bad and good, rather than by having been drowned by a bucket of pigs blood.
The song concerns the worry and excitement of going through change, and in it he is caught up in a maelstrom of his own feelings. It’s good of him to share them because for the majority there’s no change from day to week to month right now. It seems ‘Prom’ was a labour of love, too. He started writing it in Los Angeles in 2019 and finished it back in Stockholm in December 2020.
Augustine has a notably falsetto voice, as I heard when I attended his gig at By: Larm last year. Most of the time that voice works well for his songs and occasionally it doesn’t. I’m still undecided about this one. At times it is verging on piercing, and I’m not surprised to see the press release comparing him to the Bee Gees.
The other thing I’m not so sure about is the sudden ending. It’s almost as if, having ranged over contrasting notions such as “moving up to the villas” and having been “suicidal before you arrived”, he just ran out of ideas.
Weighed against that is a pleasant-enough melody and a generally chilled feel to it. But not his best work I would venture.
Prom was released on Friday, 29th January (Genesis Records). We look forward to the album.