Get Lonely Jesus!
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The Thermals - Pillar of Salt
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When you say it out loud to yourself, the theme of the new Thermals album The Body The Blood The Machine sounds like a bad idea: a pop-punk epic about life in a fascist, futuristic red-state America. Fortunately, the album doesn't sound like the shitty, preachy fart noises that the above description implies that it might. No, it sounds like intelligent, political punk rock in the vein of early Propagandhi or something: built on fast tempo, crunchy, power-chord heavy songs with political-sounding, well written lyrics and anthemic choruses.
[buy]
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The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
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I'm still not sure how to react to the new Mountain Goats record. Like the Thermals album discussed above, it's also a concept album of sorts, albeit with a much more straightforward theme: you are alone and it is very, very hard to be alone. 'Woke Up New' is, in a way, of the quintessential song off the album. The narrator merely describes a morning in the life of someone who just broke up with/lost their significant other, going through mundane tasks like making coffee, putting on a sweater, turning up the heat, and going outside. Essentially, every task is infused with the sad memory of the person who's not there, and is followed by the refrain: "What do I do, what do I do, without you?". The song has a literalness to it that I'm not used to with Mountain Goats songs and that's partially the source of my unease with the album. It's starkness and bleakness is unrelenting, without the usual infusions of humour that made earlier albums about an abusive father or a house full of drug addicts seem far less heavy than they were.
[buy]
The Thermals - Pillar of Salt
* * * * * *
When you say it out loud to yourself, the theme of the new Thermals album The Body The Blood The Machine sounds like a bad idea: a pop-punk epic about life in a fascist, futuristic red-state America. Fortunately, the album doesn't sound like the shitty, preachy fart noises that the above description implies that it might. No, it sounds like intelligent, political punk rock in the vein of early Propagandhi or something: built on fast tempo, crunchy, power-chord heavy songs with political-sounding, well written lyrics and anthemic choruses.
[buy]
* * * * * *
The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
* * * * * *
I'm still not sure how to react to the new Mountain Goats record. Like the Thermals album discussed above, it's also a concept album of sorts, albeit with a much more straightforward theme: you are alone and it is very, very hard to be alone. 'Woke Up New' is, in a way, of the quintessential song off the album. The narrator merely describes a morning in the life of someone who just broke up with/lost their significant other, going through mundane tasks like making coffee, putting on a sweater, turning up the heat, and going outside. Essentially, every task is infused with the sad memory of the person who's not there, and is followed by the refrain: "What do I do, what do I do, without you?". The song has a literalness to it that I'm not used to with Mountain Goats songs and that's partially the source of my unease with the album. It's starkness and bleakness is unrelenting, without the usual infusions of humour that made earlier albums about an abusive father or a house full of drug addicts seem far less heavy than they were.
[buy]
posted by ian at 2:07 PM
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