Jean Dawson is back and, once again, doing things his way. His new single, “90’s GREEN SCREEN,” sounds like walking straight into a lucid dream, one where nostalgia hitches a ride with a glitch, transformed and moving in real-time. Fusing alt-rock with hip-hop, pure sonic rebellion, Dawson serves up a tune that is as confusing as it is catchy.
Opening with off-kilter chords reminiscent of an old VHS tape being rewound, “90’s GREEN SCREEN” is half a trip down memory lane and half a glimpse into a future in which genres no longer exist. Dawson’s vocals cut between urgent and lilting, howling through a scene that’s as chaotic as it is cinematic. That sound is realized in “90’s GREEN SCREEN” linear progression of pulsating energy, which suggests the digital static of a time that had just begun to pass us by of switching between late-’90s TV channels in the middle of the night, not knowing where you’d end up next.
Lyrically, Dawson messes with notions of escapism and self-creation, a developing theme in his writing. The “green screen” is a touchstone for building our realities by mixing the past and present into an entirely different thing. It’s raw, it’s surreal, and it’s signature Jean Dawson.
Dawson is serving us a world to get lost in. If this indicates what’s to come, consider this your wake-up call. Jean Dawson is not simply pushing boundaries. He’s making them vanish.