Up from Mormonism

MUSIC Up from Mormonism oMe out as awan- aware enough to admit, on “living in An- derer. Comeout as a COLIN CARMAN other World,” “i’ve been going through an questioner. oneday it awkward phase.” “Cwon’t matter.Butit still Some of Glenn’s stuntednesscould does.” the author of this exhortation is Pop Psychology stem from the fact that he knew he was tyler Glenn, the lead singer of the alt-rock Album by Neon Trees gay at age six but had to survive in the band neon trees, who came out in Rolling Island Records Church of latter Day Saints. He and gui- Stone earlier this year. Glenn’s confession tarist Chris Allen, whom Glenn calls his coincided with the release of the band’s third studio album, Pop “other half” (musically speaking), grew up in Murrieta, a pre- Psychology,atitlereportedlyinspiredbythetherapyhesought dominantly Mormon suburb of San Diego, before moving to after aminormeltdown back in 2012 and the cancellation of utah where they later ruled the music scene in Provo. Due to some tour dates. He went on, in aFacebookpost, to urge his the support of the Killers (also with Mormon roots), neon fans: “Come out as you. that’s all i really can say. that’s what trees signed with amajorlabel and, on their 2010 debut i’d say to me at 21, the scared return Mormon missionary who “Habits,” delivered high-octane hits like “Animal” and knew this part of himself but loved God too. you can do both. “1983.” this must have been liberating considering the Don’t letanyone tell you [otherwise]. All my love and hope, Church deemed Glenn’s clothing “distracting,” and, on a two- and for now, back to the music.” year mission to nebraska, he was forbidden to play secular What about the music? if the song “First things First” is music. He would go into a closet, he told Rolling Stone,where any indication, music (as opposed to faith or fame) was Glenn’s he jammed in secret. first love. over a foot-stomping beat made for the stadium, he the significance of agayMormon boy retreating into an sings, “i don’t want to be so famous/ i just want to sing until idie.”that’sthealbum’s finaltrack, whereas its first, “love in the 21st Century,” zips along at an even quicker tempowith Glenn decryingthe“broken heart technology” of modern (on-line) love. the words are sometimes weak-minded—“so sweet” rhymes with “click delete”—but, collectively, Pop Psychology goes down like an energy-drink of pure power-pop, both whiney and wonderful in the tradition of Weezer and the Strokes. the album’s psychology is another matter. the object of“textMe in the Morning” is a“damselindis- tress,” but rather than rushing to her aid, the singer seeks only to be her friend: “All the other boys just want your sex/ But ijustwant your text.” “Sleeping with a Friend,” the album’s first(and best) single, peaked at number 51 on the u.S. Billboard chart. (the club remixes, by Kat Krazy and Ra Ra Riot, reposition the song on the dance floor, whichis where it truly be- longs.) Some interpret the song’s “friend” as the object Tyler Glenn of Neon Trees of gay desire, but the lyrics are more ambiguous than that. actual closet is hard to miss. Anyone familiar with the musical “teenager in love” is the gayest song of all, with Glenn The Book of Mormon knows the comic number “turn it off,” singing, “He’s a teen, a teenager in love/ What a tragic attrac- in which Mormon missionaries offer each other abitof tion.” He channels his idol Morrissey (whose naked, life-size friendly advice, which is to sublimate their gay desires. “Just image inhabits Glenn’s utahhome) with acrypticallusion to go click/ it’s a cool little Mormon trick,” sings elder McKin- unrequited same-sex love: “i’m a fool with a curse and crush.” ley, “When you’re feeling certain feelings that just don’t seem Still, there is something a little puerile about a grown man like right, treat those pesky feelings like a reading light/ And turn Glenn—who came out at age thirty and doesn’t drive—still ’em off!” now that tyler Glenn has finally flipped the switch, trapped in such ateenagewasteland. then again, he’s self- neon trees sounds better than ever, even if some of that raw rock id that powered Animal has softened. “We’re both young Colin Carman PhD teaches British and American literature atCol- hot-blooded people,” he sings, “to become one, it could be orado Mesa university. lethal.” November–December 2014 53.

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