New York-based indie pop singer-songwriter Gus Dapperton can come across as a living, breathing embodiment of the Tumblr generation. His recent guitar-driven song, “Prune, You Talk Funny”, falls in line with “I’m Just Snacking” (the lead single from his debut EP Yellow and Such, which was released in August 2017). Both songs bring to mind the kind of quirky stream-of-consciousness lyricism one might associate with Courtney Barnett. Dapperton may draw from biographical observations the way Barnett does, but his songs typically exchange direct confessionalism for storytelling.
In a Genius annotation for "I'm Just Snacking", he clarified his open-ended approach towards lyricism: "I try to say things that have never been said before or heard before, in a way that’s still true to me. I also like to write lyrics so that other people listening can interpret them in their own way and copy and paste their own feelings into the song".
Dapperton’s brand of breezy '80s-inspired synth pop and classic instrumentals creates an upbeat, pop-inflected and blissful listening experience. This often makes it easy to lose track of the idiosyncrasy of his lyrics, which tend to describe an emotional exchange in an offbeat poetic register. “Prune, You Talk Funny” begins with an expression of admiration for a presumed love interest (‘I like the way that words come out your mouth’), and detours into puzzling imagery (‘A hominid twas blossoming from/ Soot and sod/ Prune/ Eating all my food') before arriving at its euphoric moment of self-definition (‘Well you're like the bum/ Who begged and pegged me up all wrong/ I've got no two cents, no sense at all').
The 20-year old rising star does not disappoint when it comes to his visuals, which - with the help of regular collaborator Matthew Dillon Cohen - craft a cohesive personal universe marked by effortless and unself-conscious self-expression, an androgynous, gender-fluid style that is both forward-looking and retrospective in its reliance on turtlenecks, sweaters and blazers, his #bowlcutarmy, and some surreal, inexplicable touches (flowers by the high school swimming pool, a dancing pink donut). There’s a love plot "inspired by true events" at the center of it all (he runs away from an angry father in his underwear and guitar, and woos a girl in the park), but the main draw is Dapperton’s unique and refreshingly self-assured charisma.
