Don’t worry. That isn’t sadness or regret swirling around you; it’s a song. I know…it’s weird that a song can so accurately convey a sensation. But when Jack Alberson asserts that he “made this happen” in the opener “The Situation”, I feel no other course except to believe him. I accept his complicity in the decimation of everything in his wake. I also take part in his coming to terms with the situation—when the last few notes flicker out, I feel him letting go of the struggle, and I also let go.
The singer gets almost two minutes of respite when he’s cut “Loose”. Then the doubt, the “reservations” seep back in. In the slow burner “Call it a Day” he picks his sores open again, digs at his wounds. Panic, paranoia and remorse are sketched into every industrial noise, every melodic note. He’s “as far from life as one can go”.
Another minute or so of respite with the comparatively bright instrumental “Tigerbaby” and then we’re slammed back down again into industrial toiling and sad reflections. The end comes abruptly “without conclusion” in the “Ballad of the Eventual Champion”. He never states who the eventual champion is, but I’m starting to think misleading ourselves, questioning ourselves and feeling lost are major contenders for the role. In fact, I would tell you to get yourself a whiskey; you’re not going to sleep tonight. Look out into the night from whatever it is you call home. If you have a trench coat, then wear it with all the noir inflections that Memphis inspires.
~~Review by Lola Lariscy
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Jack Alberson's
Reverb Nation page
Jack is also a singer/musician/songwriter for
Shortwave Dahlia and
the Near Reaches
