Sitcom is the project of Baltimore’s Jake Lazovick, who also performs under his given name and in Foozle. Sitcom is meant to be a project for experimentation and self-awareness, as he explains:
Do not be distracted by a joke. Sitcom is a not a made-for-tv movie. I call the project sitcom because it is one. It is self-reflection in which the character of myself is removed from the self that is singing. This project constructs an open forum for experimentation within popular music conventions. Disregarding pop music as a genre and rather viewing it as an umbrella term for any music mediated through pop culture. So the two acts of sitcom are self-reflection and production. And these acts are simultaneous.
Earlier in the year, we wrote about Sitcom’s Drum Set album, which was made using “software, microphones, various objects & samples.” The album opens with a discussion of “the song” from John Rublowsky’s Popular Music, “The song is the beginning… Between the composition of a song and its eventual performance and recording, however, there lies a rocky road full of unexpected pitfalls and hazards.” Drum Set explores the components of constructing a song and sound, isolating all the smallest parts along the way as a means of revealing the man behind the curtain. Sitcom’s new album, What’s Up, combines this study with the subtly profound narrative style used in many of Lazovick’s songs.
Like What’s Up’s first single, “ginger ale,” “Window View” evolves from a seemingly simple scenario, revealing along the way a series of very human observations, emotions, and experiences; in this case it is the act of inching through a dark bedroom. As the song’s instruments slowly build upon each other, Lazovick offers a series of intimate confessions: “In my bedroom / Sometimes I want a hand / To hold with my hand / Though I am okay / Holding my pillow / The window… / Keeps me company.” Towards the end of this verse, Lazovick, Crying/100%‘s Elaiza Santos, and a very chill saxophone played by Cooper Wright join together to ask, “Can you be my window?” “Window View” uses architecture as a metaphor for comfort, security, and guidance, once again showing Lazovick’s gift for revealing unconscious associations with the everyday.
What’s Up is out June 6 on Apollonian Sound. You can stream “Window View” below.
