Predestinated to the most intellectual fans of Mumiy Troll

The country had been given a freedom; the country had no idea what to do with it, but was happy enough.
Someone who was bold enough, privatized the factories, someone who was more modest, opened private shops; somebody who had some connections with the members of the former Soviet — nowadays Russian modern music elite.
Did Russians obtain the freedom they were dreaming about? They say, music, which is been listened, can show everything about the current situation and values of society. A foreigner who comes to Russia and listens to the popular music can be only astonished: are the Russians so primitive, or so much morally defeated by their social reality, that they are able to listen all that terrible stuff?
However, the system of creating new stars is very logical; it reminds us something like a local universe. All of these 'stars’, these little boys and girls with no talents and no brains may become famous and fabulous, if they gather around the orbits of 'masters of universe’, the top-singers of the former Soviet music elite. These 'tops’ are just a few persons, who are called by their second name, and whose children normally take their parents’ positions of the country’s 'golden voices’, though they might have no voices at all. Who are they, stars? More truthfully would be to say — asteroids. They are falling and falling on the people’s heads as malicious blessings; and their success depends on getting closer to the powerful orbits for to warm themselves in the rays of their glory.
So, there are these core orbits — king(s) and queen(s), emperors and presidents, gods, patrons, sponsors — however might we call them. There are their children and the members of their families. There are also 'all the others’, who have an opportunity to enter the music universe whether by inevitably licking the shoes of the 'kings’, or giving them tremendous amounts of money. Family alliances is the main feature of this country, hierarchy is the style of this country. And, as I suspect, it refers not only to the music sphere.
The country was given a freedom — here you go, sing whatever you want, express your thoughts, especially if you have something to express, even if your ideas are rebellious or contradicting the modern authorities. But there is a strange tendency — anyone that decided to do so, to use the freedom, and besides, who gains popularity with that, became strangely disappearing, nevertheless, staying something like national heroes.
Well, Visotsky died, it happened long time ago, and it still refers to the Soviet past.
Tsoy perished in an accident; Tsoy had been really not bad, and it was he who had died and not someone else.
Korzhykov from 'Lesopoval’ threw himself out of the sauna window, being drunk — well, life is full of surprises, especially if that young scoundrel sang into one’s screen:
’Guys, don’t you steel from the people,
There is somebody else to steel here besides us, thieves.’
But who and why murdered Talkov, that justice-fighter, no one knows, and never will know.
I guess, the brightest stars, whose light is independent, the true stars, and not asteroids fade really quickly.
In modern style, however there is another way to 'fade the real stars’. Should I describe? Those who tend to struggle for being heard, but not through licking the shoes of elite top-singers, and not bribing them with money, would get only the following:
’Åthe splinters of a vanished soul, flying high up,
chased by a flock of stonesÅ’
[oskolki lopnuvshei dushi mchavsheis’a vverx obgonjaemoi staei kamnei]

One can 'fade the stars’ slowly. Why not? Last year the catastrophically popular Russian pop-music band 'Mumiy Troll’ had suffered such a huge flow of various critics, which hadn’t been poured over all the other Russian singers altogether. What is that, the destiny of all the stars?
Remember that Lagoutenko declared about it in a very contradicting way 'I am not a star’.

’Not a Star’ — what is that? Is it genuinely a cute little song about a 'love to a spaceship captain’, or maybe, it is just a bitter irony? (Don’t compare me to all your nowadays 'stars’, I don’t want to stay in their shadowÅ) Who knows?
All the songs of «MT» have more than one meaning, but there are some critics, who do not understand either one, that’s why they gift us with the following phenomena: 'And in the 'Ikra’ album the texts are so complicated, that Lagoutenko himself forgets the words on his concertsÅ’
Should I now shout that similar claims are insolent lies? Oh, no, I would better quote another critic: 'The crowd is so stupid to be during three entire years fanatic of some nonsense lie thatÅ’ Well, crowd is crowd, and I would even agree with that, but than I cannot explain another fact: why does the intellectual Russian youth like 'MT’ as well?
Bold, but just answers follow: Because 'MT’ has a style. Because he has ideas. Because he has perspectives. And these three factors might inarguably be expressed by another conception 'NEW CENTURY’.

The particularity of common love (and also hatred) towards 'MT’ can be explained by the argument that the whole band is not just 'cool’, but also because the sound of the music, and the comprehension of the texts (yes, of these 'confusing ones’) are totally new and original. And an intellectual or someone with the sole of the artist can explain the meaning not with help of intuition, but also from a very logical point of view.
Let me talk about texts here. For somebody it happens to be hard to perceive the style of the songs’ words. I don’t want to be suspected to accuse someone in stupidity. The problem is that during the Soviet period of music development, and also during the period after a listener got used to certain stereotypes within any song he hears; and these stereotypes had stuck to peoples’ minds so much that now it is almost impossible to get rid of them. Even the young singers of today’s Russian pop-music are evidently extreme conservatives in their styles. The reasons of that might be first of all the above-mentioned hierarchy of the elite top-singers, who, better than any Soviet censorship, run the Russian music; and these top-singers are the representatives of the elder Soviet generation. Second of all it is much easier to control the stereotyped music than the bold and the liberal one.
So, what kinds of stereotypes there are in the wide spread songs? My answer is short — I count only two. Whether the story of the song sounds happy — the two characters love each other, and everything is excellent (’Ti mne nuzhen I ja tebe nuzhna’) or one of the characters does not love the other, and everything is so bad (’Ti vernis ja ak tebja molyu vidit Bog ja do six por tebja lubly’). Of course there is a slight variety, but there are some solid frames for expressing thoughts and feelings in the songs — and at the result we end up with a bunch of similar songs that cannot have any feelings and thoughts at all.

’MT’ is a revolution. This band ended up with all the stereotypes, and made a listener comprehend that human brain is able to express something more that all that traditional and primitive boredom. Of course, boldness of Lagoutenko might be as well called insolence; I personally do not deny it. But namely that quality is extremely needed for to bring a new wave into the moor of little foolish songs that make people be disappointed in the art of music in general. 'MT’ is an explosion, and once it blew up — one cannot stop it now.
As for the critics — of course they are unhappy — cheeky and fresh songs of 'MT’ keep being popular an impolite amount of time, because whether logically, or instinctively, the people are apt to listen to this music. But the critics make unlucky job, saying that the new style should fail: imagine, how can a solider boy lose his eyes, if he is fighting? How can a railroad crawl from a country’s pocket if a 'country’ i s not physical? Oh no, they say, you cannot mix your blood with ice and juice unless it is sadist; and even if you are so shallow and you can lick someone’s lips, hell no, you cannot lick somebody’s eyes. Or asteroids.
How can we understand this? How? Just forget your stereotypes, begin with words, continue with phrases, and end up with ideas. Why the hearts are Siam?
Siam hearts — the hearts compared with the Siam twins, those who interact, are connected by blood and soul, interdependent and not separable. So are the hearts of the two lovers, who feel and act like one person. If, as in the beginning of the song, the hearts are «torn apart», there is a tragedy: 'Your — mine problem’ (mutual problem) — 'the stop of body’ (mutual death). [Siam Hearts].
Understand by the same principle 'vodka — hard water’ [Kot Kota], 'to get a 300 drops’ [Na Jadi]Å
Let us continue with phrases: one can say: 'We were sitting at home, drank our butts off and shared a couple of drugs.’ Sing that, and you will disgust even those who perform that practice in their real life. Say like this: 'We mixed the blood with ice and juice; we twisted the veins by the silk funnels.’ [Skorost].
One can say: 'I kiss you into lips.’ It’s not bad, probably, but it is dull, banal and not even erotic. Why don’t you say: «I’ll shut up your oxygen supplying’? [Ne Zvezda].

IdeasÅ I would never consider the whole Internet to be enough for their amount. Not because I admire 'MT’ so much — just because, as I have said, 'MT’ persuades us that a human brains is wide enough to have all of them. None of the songs resembles another one. See an image of a 'new Russian’, thoughtless, careless and cruel in 'Zabavi’? See an unhappy first love in 'Devochka’? See an everyday life description in 'Delai Menja Tochno?’ You don’t? I even smell a Russian communal flat, when I listen to it.

People like or dislike 'MT’ and no one can prevent them from that. But one shouldn’t deny the style of the band; I guess the reasons we have just mentioned make us realize that 'MT’ deserved being widely recognized a promoter of the new century.
’MT’’s songs are not complicated, they are just another way to describe our life, but in more precise and precious way, than any of the dull songs of previous century did.

So, it is understandable why one can like 'MT’. Why in heaven’s sake to hate it? Lagoutenko declares about himself in a special way. In order to speak out loud (with help of his songs) he does not prove that he is good or bad. He just rebels. A friend, very famous among Russian top-singers, being in position of concerts director, confessed me once: 'he elite hates 'Mumik’. He openly makes fun of all of them.’
That is true — that strange shallow self-made star guy seems to mock anyone else. His irony is incredible; it can be compared only with his legendary communication skills.
But does not he have a right for that?
Let us get another example.
Prostitution in the songs is a very exotic and risky theme, and only the 'master’ singers dared to touch it (or those who consider themselves to be masters). The best piece here was the song 'Putana’, presented by Shefutinsky.
It is a long patriarchal ballad, where the first couplet consists of recollections about the romantic first love, the second — about the bad destiny, the third about the current job of the girl, the last — about the result: 'Kak grustno znat’ chto nam ne bit’ vdvoem, a mozhet prosto deneg nakopit’’? The music is heavy, the singer is handsome, huge and conscious, and the listeners are nobly sleeping. Why? Because they are bored, because in order to carry the information to the listeners one should not fill up their ears with repeating 'Putana, putana, putana’ six times per each refrain. When a thought is repeated many times it becomes a stereotype.
’Mumik’ mocked that principle with one of his strangest songs — 'Rosa Luxembourg’. The idea is clear — one cannot have any spiritual, or, let’s say soul-like relationship with a prostitute. But even after, and not before a physical contact, one may fall in love and feel something else, despite the relationship, which should not imply any feelings: 'You are left with rubles, and I am left with mysteries.’ The result: he wants to love her sincerely, and change their relationship from business-like to human-like: 'I don’t want to be with you anymore without you.’
Their ideas coincided, but Shefutinsky said tons of words, and Lagoutenko just dropped these two phrases. Just these two! All the rest is refrain and the well-known 'U la la’ and 'Tam dam dam’ — usual 'Mumiy Troll’ stuff.
Is that mocking? But who is right? He, who used many words and made people to fall asleep, or he who was carelessly sweet and expressed the same idea, but made it more original and fresh?
Well, somebody can say, songs are not about economy. Nay, if one can sing about a prostitute within a ballad, it is fine. But would you ever imagine someone else to express the waterfall of emotions and ideas in such songs as 'Vospitannik Upavshei Zvezdi’? Or 'Malchik — Soldat’? Or — for instance — 'Vladivostok 2000’??!!
If you think due to old century’s criteria, you would need to write books for that — as huge as dictionaries.

That is all I wanted to say. The new century is coming — and we should be proud, that a new style and probably a new ideology are something we are carrying with us into it. 'MT’ is a progress, whether one likes it or not.
Please do not consider this article to be written by a fan in love. I personally prefer Mozart, and I guess Lagoutenko’s music stays far away from Mozart’s.
But I support 'Mumiy Troll’. I justify the policy of 'Mumiy Troll’, and I give 'Mumiy Troll’ a wide road, because I believe that 'Mumiy Troll’ is the future.

As for those who does not give him a road, and predicts that he fails — well, should I remind another quote?
’The stones always returned back,
For after the sun there’s no chase anymore.’

Source: Victoria Sola, Union of Independent Journalists, Budapest