Love songs have spent a century turning devotion into a virtue simply because somebody found a chorus for it. Modern Friend’s Pictures takes that old bargain and puts a collar around its neck. Writing from the perspective of a dog, Voytek Korab considers the peculiar compromises of modern relationships, where being wanted can mean learning to live entirely on somebody else’s terms. The affection may be real, but the conditions deserve a closer look: be available, be agreeable, and please do not need anything inconvenient.
A founding member of My Favorite Robot, Korab has spent years inside underground electronic music, playing everywhere from Coachella and DC-10 to the Rex Club and Montreal’s Piknic Elektronik. Modern Friend grew from a different urge, one he had been carrying for much of the last decade: get back to singing, get back to writing songs, and give a more personal voice to the ideas taking shape around the music.
Pictures, the third single from the forthcoming debut album Nothing Out Of Something, carries that return into a brisk new-wave frame where melody and discomfort share the same room. The beat moves with tidy motorik efficiency as Korab keeps the vocals languid and dreamy. The hooks settle in quickly, making an inviting setting for a less comfortable question about what people are willing to surrender in exchange for being wanted.
“I hope to one day be your best accessory” gives the joke its sharpest point. Here, a prospective partner is already negotiating their own reduction, volunteering to fit whatever space another person has available. You can be a modern man’s best friend, provided you remember that “stay” is an instruction and not a promise. “Just put up pictures when I’m lost” brings a more tender possibility into the song through the familiar image of lost-dog flyers fastened to streetposts. Beneath the joke sits a vulnerable hope: if I go missing, care enough to come looking.
Korab describes the feeling beneath the song’s humor:
“It’s a song about wanting to be loved for who you are, while quietly realizing that sometimes love can begin to feel more like possession, decoration, or convenience than connection.”
That distinction gives Pictures its emotional weight. The pet becomes a metaphor for the partner who learns to accept affection on somebody else’s schedule, gradually editing out the needs and opinions that might spoil the arrangement. Small concessions accumulate until one person’s comfort determines the shape of both their lives. Being needed can feel reassuring enough to postpone asking whether that need leaves room for your independence. Korab keeps the premise playful, but the imbalance is familiar: one person waits faithfully for attention while the other decides when to give it.
Watch the video for Pictures below:
Mixed by Justin Drake at Bakehouse Studios in London and mastered by Ali X in Mexico, Pictures gives its uneasy observations an appealing pop finish. Its easy movement suits the satire: the song makes accommodation sound pleasant enough that you can understand how somebody might overlook the cost.
By the end, Pictures has made its canine perspective uncomfortably familiar. Modern romance is for the dogs when loyalty becomes an expectation and affection remains a reward. Even the most faithful companion deserves more than an occasional scrap of attention.
Listen to Pictures below and order the single via Permaculture here.
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