Bryan McPherson – American Glory
I’ll be honest with you, and you’ll need to refrain yourself from taking the news out on the messenger. When you speak about the U.S.A. nowadays, whether you do it on a rooftop bar in Oslo or in the train station in Yerevan, people tend to snicker. And that’s if they’re polite. Haven’t they heard about “The Dream”? Doesn’t it mean anything to them?
Not anymore. But, surely, it once did. You didn’t need to be a U.S. citizen to believe that this was a place, if not built, then developed through values, dreams, and hopes. Still, it’s those closest to all of those, such as songwriter Bryan McPherson, who are crying out that all of those are merely illusions. And, naturally, it’s those sitting an ocean away that nod their head in agreement. What can be done?
Bryan McPherson’s “American Glory” is on the surface a gritty story about city streets populated with people whose minds and bodies have been broken down by a mean world and by their strategies to cope with it. But in the earnest songwriting, which includes traces of punk anger and folk music traditionalism, there is a universal message also. If the best of us falls, what does that say about the rest of us? Perhaps only hopefulness and calm may push us back on course.
HLLLYH (fka Mae Shi) – Dead Clade
Most people are miserable with their lives, and they don’t need the threat of nuclear war, fears about a global pandemic or the breakdown of global economic networks to make them feel this way.
And while the unhappiness of the world is one of the terrible mysteries that we’re left with, it is not our job to fix it. Simply, you cannot. All that you risk doing is getting yourself infected. And, oh, the risks are pretty big as HLLLYH, formerly Mae Shi, has found out.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons why so many hate artists with a passion, ridicule them, and encourage others to burn their works in large bonfires. Why should they laugh in the face of your misery by attempting to be happy, exploring what the world has to offer, and experimenting with their skills? Sure, you should hate those.
They’re not special is what HLLLYH assures you of on this album, which turn out to be the group’s final one. But as “Dead Clade,” a song inspired by days long ago spent in an art commune proves, it’s better to try and rock out than never to rock out at all. Glitzy, artsy, and overwhelmingly fun, this band wants to assure you that they’re not in it to win it. They’re just here to play, find themselves and be a little less miserable than everyone else who has just given up.
