Media Lion

Rating: 7

I had pretty high hopes for this album- But Anyway has been a song I’ve listened to quite a lot and I was looking forward to listening to the rest of the album, but it ended up falling a little flat for me instrumentally. The frequent harmonica forward pieces were too frequent for me, and got a little repetitive throughout the album, which made it feel pretty bland to me- though to be fair, how much variation is really possible between one harmonica solo to another? I felt like this album is both hopeful and somewhat nihilistic (? maybe not the right word, but I struggle to find the one I’m looking for)- so many of the songs have lines or verses basically saying ‘Something has gone wrong, but fuck it, who cares’ In But Anyway, he calls his ex, but she’s not home. Oh well, guess he’ll be alone for the rest of his life! Instead of trying again he simply moves on. Which is either positive- he’s not letting an issue get him down, or rather depressing- he gave it a shot and it didn’t work, so he’s resigned to being miserable the rest of his life.

In Crystal Flame:

‘Inspiration too untold
I hope someday I can befriend it
I think that comes with growing old’

Are a couple of lines I really enjoyed (though doesn’t really fall into hopeful or nihilistic)- he knows there is great inspiration in the world, but instead of actively seeking it out, he’s just hoping it comes to him as he grows old. 

Slow Change is essentially saying that if something doesn’t change immediately, who cares at all? It makes me think of old people and climate change- it wont affect them, so fuck it! Gotta Get Mean, saying it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re going to lose, so you have to change your attitude. Which again, I think it can either be interpreted as hopeful: life might be hard, but you have to get on with it and do what you can; or nihilistic: you’re always going to lose, so does any of it matter?

Overall, this album was so-so instrumentally for me (though honestly, I’m not sure what would make it better), but was very enjoyable thematically & lyrically. I did find the stretch of Slow Change into Warmer Days kind of funny- since Slow Change made me think of climate change, and was immediately followed by a song about liking the heat.

But Anyway – Maybe a bit obvious based on my previous thoughts, but I really enjoy this song. It is a great opener, talking about how trying to change, or fix something in life always seems to cause another problem. It’s the ultimate unbothered song- quitting smoking? Great! Eye cancer from the TV that told you to quit smoking, but anyways.. I view it as an always moving forward song, it’s not worth getting bent out of shape over things you can’t control.

I’m not sure I had a particular least favorite on this album- outside of the stand out tracks, all the others felt of similar caliber.

Slow Change, Gotta Get Mean, Alone. I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these tracks, mostly for the lyrics- Slow Change and Gotta Get Mean felt very much like raging against the machine (not the band) and Alone was a nice depressing (oxymoron?) penultimate song to close out the album. 

Something I did in music appreciation in college that I want to try was a series of questions related to the album (that somewhat increase in complexity/thoughtfulness)- might be a little funky because we did it with either snippets or single songs, but it could work alright with an album (also I don’t remember all of the questions unfortunately). In the future I might just try doing it with my favorite track instead.

When listening to this album…

What did you hear? (Instruments, whatever):

For me, HARMONICA. That was clearly the standout here (to me), and I think there was a harmonica (kind of) solo on just about every song.

What did you picture? Why? (Either during specific songs, or throughout the album):

Throughout this album I pictured an average man, going through his life, working a 9-5, and feeling the grind of life whittling away at him. In my mind there is some level of continuity between songs; in But Anyway, the singer talks about losing his girlfriend, and making a bear minimum effort to reconnect, then later in Alone it feels like it’s the same man, reminiscing about his lost love (I know in But Anyway he says he says he lies about loving her, but I think later on in life he realizes he did, and wants her back), and still pining over her. 

Were there any themes you recognized in this album?

This album felt like it could have any number of themes; love, loss, rage (on a second thought, are these really themes? I don’t know, I’ve been out of literary analysis for too long). Love and loss are clear cut ones to me- a good portion of the album involves both of these in the same song. Slow Change & Gotta Get Mean felt like rage filled songs to me- raging against the state of things with little to no ability to change anything but yourself.

How did this album make you feel? Why?

This is a tough one to answer for me- I think it made me feel hopeful and light on this listen through, but could easily have been a depressing listen in a different frame of mind. Like I said earlier, I felt like it could be viewed either way, and I think that is entirely dependent on how you feel when you listen to it.