T.R.A.M. POST TRIPPY “INVERTED BALLAD” MUSIC VIDEO

I’ve always wondered how musicians in instrumental bands choose names for their songs. Is it based on a feeling the music gives them? Something that’s bouncing around their head at the time? Is it completely random?

In the case of T.R.A.M.’s “Inverted Ballad,” at least one part of the song title is plainly obvious: compared to the rollicking, pulsating grooves of the rest of Lingua Franca, this is definitely a ballad. But what’s “inverted” about it? Maybe whichever band member wrote the main riff/theme wrote it by playing some other “ballad”-y phrase backwards. Maybe they were trying to evoke an internal feeling by expressing hatred towards a scorned lover instead of adoration, thus inverting the ballad. We’ll probably never know, but it’s fun to think about this stuff.

Check out the new official video for “Inverted Ballad” above. It’s quite pretty to look at, and the watercolor-esque quality of the illustrations kind of reminds me of Lingua Franca‘s trippy album cover.

-VN