Little Oil – What’s Become of Me
There’s no use in hiding. Nearly every single rock musician secretly dreams of adoring fans willing to finance their investment into a gold-plated swimming pool placed right inside the walls of that big mansion on the hill. But, ironically enough, once the same musician starts earning even a small portion of the funds that could make the dream happen, they lose their nerve.
Comfort breeds contentment and, typically, robs artists of any motivation to keep improving their craft. Great art is so often and intrinsically tied to misery that no parent would ever willingly advise their children to seek a career that involves them playing chords on a musical instrument.
LIttle Oil, a musical project that I’ve had the good fortune to review before. On “What’s Become of Me”, the moral of the story is clear and simple: things are going terribly, and that’s good for business. This is a lovely and mighty charming and polite to boot, lo-fi folk song. But don’t let those lovely melodies trick you. This is a song about being in the dumps and making the wrong choices over and over again. And that’s a sad thing no matter how nice this might all sound.
Kevin Kell O’Donnell – Don’t Worry About Me (I’ve Already Got Someone New)
What’s the thing that keeps songwriters from telling the truth? Is it self-respect or an instinct for self-preservation that makes them want to tell stories only based in truth, but that nearly always leave out the gory details?
Whatever it is, this has robbed us of plenty of great songs. This has, over the years, consistently made all of us listeners feel like the people writing our favourite tunes are somehow above the routine pain and humiliation that we go through.
But the truth’s got to get out somehow. And when it does, it won’t be pretty. Kevin Kell O’Donnell has opted to stop waiting for the inevitable to happen and, instead, reveal the inside details of a failed relationship like a man who no longer cares about the consequences.
This makes the folk-punk-sounding “Don’t Worry About Me (I’ve Already Got Someone New)” a phenomenally interesting song. In this breakup tune, the person losing out has had it coming, and the price is being robbed of not just love, but, for a while, the capacity to fulfil even the simplest tasks. Don’t believe me? It’s all in the words that O’Donnell bravely uses to tell the story.
