On we go,and though we are only on the fourth song, it sure feels like there is a lot of throat clearing going on. I guess if you’re going deep into the consciousness of a manic depressive you might as well keep into on the down low. Oddly enough, the novel I am writing takes you down into the psyche of its characters but I seem to be writing about what happens in their brains, Patrick is writing so far about how they feel.
To recap, Our hero has woken up, wished he was asleep, and self-medicated (or not) into the new day (here) and…
4 – Lonely Boy – With a nod to Gene Pitney (though if you wanna play the game of nods…) our hero doesn’t wanna get out of bed and when he does he walks down the streets of the big city hating everything and everyone. The guitar solo in the middle is magical and the misanthropic (and self loathing) story line is filled with strength and weakness. It’s a masterful song and if storywise he feels like it is running in place, everything is opening up for a moment yet to come – A
5 – Lost My Mind (+@) – Hashmark wow! With my current concern on suicide these words jumped “Since then it’s been a struggle just to stay alive, suicide seems superior than trying to survive.” A look back to his childhood in anger and bewilderment along with a proto Titus singalong where he makes the mind a protagonist, a third party and sanity a movable feast for a wandering kind. PS +@ is a nickname for Titus Andronicus according to Patrick’s label Merge Records. Later, he would cover the Daniel Johnston song of the same name – A
6 – Look Alive – 33 second blast of 70s punk -inside he’s dead, we got it but thanks anyway and thus ends the first part of the story. Apparently, Our Hero spent the night in bed doing nothing: something I’d pay cash money for the opportunity- C+
7 – Lookalike – This is is +@ equivalent of “Do You Think It’s Alright” -it is there to move the story along, so here comes our hero and he sees his double. Is it real? Is it in his mind? By the way this 47 seconds is better than the previous 33 seconds – B+
8 – The Magic Morning – Another day another instrumental this is gonna be a big day- C+
9 – I Lost My MInd (DJ) – A cover of inspirational patron saint of The Most Lamentable Tragedy, bipolar and schizophrenic Daniel Johnston. Not bad but a little unnecessary – B-
10 – Mr. E. Mann – What’s the difference between happy +@ and sad +@, here Patrick, who once wrote a song called “I Am The Electric Man” from his hospital after getting electrocuted, meets his double a person free of the religiously subverted fuckedupness and without all that Catholic guilt fucking him up. But is it really a double or is it well, +@ himself? The piano based rocker is good without being great and here nine songs in, I count three songs that could be dubbed great, still that organ rides it very well – B
11 – Fired Up – Patrick claims he is hitting out at (his) organized religion though a line like “I’ve been living without a God
and these Christians don’t know what they’re missing”. Perhaps, but I thought Patrick was anti-the organizing principle, if you have a god in your head, how is he against that? Anyway, it is a full throttle, full voice attack, very smart, very worried, very beautiful. Very important – A
12 – Dimed Out – Nathan Ruess of fun. in Rolling Stone: “Thank you for introducing me to the best song of the year. It’s tough to even listen to any other song — I just want to listen to “Dimed Out.” I’ve been talking to all my friends about it. The energy is perfect, and the bridge is so fucking spectacular. Those are the best lyrics I’ve heard in forever. I want to get a tattoo of those bridge lyrics across my face.” Patrick explains how he makes his art, a magnificent song, if Merge decided to release this and not +@ they did them a big favor – A+
Next time? “More Perfect Union” (I could write it now just not as well, I wanna listen a bit more)
