Nearly everyone in the world remains obsessed with what it takes to lead a successful life. Everyone’s looking around for answers. We all expect some help from our preachers, our leaders, and, especially from our artists. And, we’re afraid of what they might tell us because, instinctively, we may already know.
What is really valued nowadays? Same as what was really valued yesterday – money, power and influence.
People will spend the vast majority of their lives and nearly all of their energy to acquire it. Now, it’s a cliche to say that money doesn’t buy happiness. But at a time like this, when so much is available to so many, and yet when life could end at any moment, do you really want to spend your time posing for your marble bust?
James Margolis is a hippie by nature and jazz-influenced songwriter by education. He’s also been keeping an eye on the world on current events and has decided he wants little to do with it all. If he’s short stories told in song form on “Civilianaire” have anything in common, it’s the realisation of how little people really need to be happy and how important happiness is important in leading a successful life.
Album opener, “Eternally Grateful”, creeps in a playful cat. The music resembles the kind of jazz that would’ve been played and sung by characters in some 1960s Billy Wilder movie. The vocal delivery is confident and well-delivered, as Margolis talks about facing death once and now being ready to face life.
Maybe the scales, indeed, have fallen from the eyes of the songwriter. On “Tryina Divide Us,” Margolis and his band move into an almost psych-rock trance while delivering a truce to whoever would want to pick a fight with them.
There are traps and pitfalls everywhere. And they can usually be found in everyday life. Margolis has come to recognise them. He’s now using his sophisticated, old-timey Hollywood jazz soundtrack sound to paint pretty colours around them.
“No Fear” is a mantra to be used to wisen up to all the politician crooks trying to rob the electorate. “How Many Guns” is a traditional folk song written as a protest against the all-power arms industry. And the dynamic “Turbulent Times” rings almost like a poetry slam dissecting the never-ending military campaigns of the world’s single superpower.
What’s James Margolis playing at here? As a songwriter, Margolis has realised one simple thing. He and his band are capable of creating a wonderfully pleasing jazz-inspired sound that people will want to hear. On the other hand, people don’t want to hear about stopping wars, corrupt politicians, or living frugally. Combine the two, music and lyrics, and you may have a solution.
And where does it all leave us? As Margolis explains in his understated baritone on “Life is Short,” you might not get a lot of chances to tell the world and the people in it that you love them. Better start doing something now. And, as it turns out, it won’t take much to make some kind of difference. The marble bust can wait.
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