FRESH: ‘Why Did I Choose This?’ (album) – Oliver Marson

Oliver Marson asks “Why Did I Choose This?”
Pop

Think of London based ‘art-Pop’ artist Oliver Marson as a cross between Elvis Costello and Jarvis Cocker but with a twist of Edwyn Collins and Colin Vearncombe. He is 80’s synth-chic, 90’s Brit Pop as well as being a highly individual 2020 artist on the rise, and to demonstrate this, he’s just released his debut album!

“Why Did I Choose This?” is the culmination of five years hard work and numerous singles to showcase his songwriting and performing ability as an artist to look out for and study this incredible body of work he has dished up as his opening act. Oliver Marson’s music exists in the same vein as art rock bands like Sparks and Pulp as well as more contemporary artists like Alex Cameron, Kirin J Callinan and Connan Mockasin. His signature croon, energetic shows and satirical lyrics commenting on the grisly truths of 2020’s Britain have earned him a cult following already.

Oliver began writing music following a serious illness that had left him hospitalised. “One of the things that I held onto was that when I got out of hospital I was going to make a lot of music. I think I felt that if I died then what a waste my life would have been. If anything, for me this period of writing wasn’t about receiving accolades, it was about the journey and the process of becoming something or someone else” he explains.

“Why Did I Choose This?” is a collection of quirky and eclectic songs that take unexpected turns while managing to remain accessible and catchy. Marson’s talent for combining over-the-top, extravagant 80s sounds with his timeless crooning vocal creates a cognitive dissonance that will resonate with those who feel out of place in today’s world.

The album’s title is a reference to the chorus of the opening track, “Blue Dreams”, a fantasy about Marson burning down the building of his mundane office job. This sets the tone for an album about making mistakes and poor life choices. “It’s about reaching a point in your life where you ask yourself ‘how did I get here?’ A dull career, a dodgy tattoo or a horrible hair transplant. The album tries to offer a release and an escape from life in mundanity” he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ye9R_AYiM

The album features previous singles “Tokyo”, “Richest Man In The World”, “Flowers Of Evil” and “Death Of A Pornstar”, all of them different from the next and all of them laced with irony, distain, confidence, frivolity, insecurity and waggishness in equal amounts and with a calculated wink at society and life as we know it.

“Why Did I Choose This?” is, as Marson puts it, ‘ludicrous music for ludicrous times’, covering themes of sex, death, love, life in late-capitalism and the end of the world. “I think the album takes you on a journey of escapism, but comes back to the fact we are sort of stuck in the reality we are in. It is both a dream and a nightmare,” explains Marson. “It is about the confusion in our lives, the joy, the terror of it all. It is tasteless, glamorous, sexy, confusing, vulgar, fun and, well, it’s pop music!”.