#cong josie

[dougwallen]

Cong Josie review for The Big Issue

[groovesnjams]

“Cong the Singer” by Cong Josie

MG:

It’s a tough moment in time for perverts, which, as we all know, includes the whole of Australia. It’s tough to even commit to using the word “pervert” in this post because it’s taken on a certain society-flaunting, misogynist tone that no longer bends shallow or silly enough to include aesthetics. The synonyms are likewise too heavy and serious, but Cong Josie in his ill-fitting yet somehow still slightly scandalous pink suit and thin, polyester undershirt is every bit a pervert and “Cong the Singer” relishes in smirking at his every aberration. Most of the song is dressing and decoration, repetitious raised eyebrows and unnerving spotlights, before settling in with an unhinged guitar solo and the image of driving down Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway (at night, obviously.) It’s both dangerous and hilarious at every swerve, every flat lining synth swirling the drain. For years now I’ve had to listen to the host of Casefile read Madison Reed and Best Fiends ads to even approach the decadence Cong Josie wields as he takes the Springvale Road exit and I’m happy to finally come home again.

DV:

I guess a mask would make the Orville Peck comparison a bit too on the nose, though on the other hand Cong is out here in his rhinestone cowboy outfit singing about the “dead of night” so maybe on the nose is just a given. But replacing Peck’s drama-laded croon and rich production with chintzy 80s synths and a thin high wail unsurprisingly works for me just as well as MG: the aesthetic might be familiar, but it’s fully formed and compelling nonetheless. “Cong the Singer” makes a kind of mythology from empty highways and lonely nights and delusion: “And they cheered/ And they clapped/ And they applauded/ And they chanted,” Cong Josie narrates in the outro. It’s utterly unconvincing, though I believe he believes in it. This tension, between the world Cong Josie depicts and the one he actually inhabits, is magnificent.