PRINCIPALITY “Glass CS” C26 (Night People)




Morrissey’s spirit is still alive and well. As distracting as he’s been in the recent past, fighting with his record label, getting felt up by airport security, and writing stuff like this in a book that I’ll probably never read, he remains, in my mind, one of the best songwriters of his generation (along with, of course, his Smiths bandmates). It is an undeniable fact. So when I hear that he’s teamed up with Rio-era Duran Duran for a six-song tape for Night People, you can bet your very last farthing that I’m thrilled beyond thrilled.

“Say what?!” you incredulously gasp, and I don’t blame you – the news is false, a fakery perpetuated by me and me only. Everything I say in the first paragraph above is intended to build a comparison to Principality, a four-piece post punk/new wave throwback from Minneapolis. Their Glass CS release on Night People (that part was real) sounds like a wonderful mashup of these two great artists, and is a way-too-short burst of tuneful energy. In fact, lead track “Young Boys” sounds like a lost anthem to the mid-1980s, and maybe it was in an alternate universe where the mid-1980s hit right around 2016, the year MTV reached its broadcast rating pinnacle. Just remember, 2022 is the year punk breaks!

But back here, in our own universe, Duran Duran is old, Morrissey is weird and old, and I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. Principality is young and cool, and instead of holding my breath for any good new music out of anybody thirty (or so) years my senior, I’m going to hang my hat on this generation instead. Because no matter whether you’re from this universe or the next one over, you’re still human, and you still have a need in your life for music that motivates you enough to dance your frustrations away. At least I think you’re human. Actually, you could have evolved in any number of ways. You and Principality could be single-celled organisms with musical chops for all I know.




--Ryan Masteller