Joplin Rice – Hurricane Alaska
I wrote about Joplin Rice’s Low Hum a few months ago, but Rice edged in another 2015 release at almost the last second.
Rice has melancholy down to a fine art. Where Low Hum saw him alone in his bedroom, crooning ballads to an acoustic guitar, Hurricane Alaska finds him alone in his bedroom with the magic of multi-tracking. The full band sound suits him: he has a strong power-pop sensibility that calls to mind Athens, Georgia, circa the early ’90s. It allows his plaintive voice and lyrics about isolation to become lost in a swell of cheerful song, which ultimately drives his point home even more.
For better or worse, the layered music obfuscates Rice’s pointed lyrics. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though — it serves to soften the blow. When you hear lyrics like these float through the distorted guitars, maybe after your third listen, you’ll find yourself good and sucker-punched:
If you ask me out i probably won’t go
even though you’re beautiful
don’t act like you don’t know
’cause you don’t need to be look-aftering
while the rest of your life should be happening
so give me bourbon in a cup
give me somewhere to throw up
give me pictures in the sky
give me someone i can fight
’cause you should be somewhere disastering
with someone else who doesn’t understand what that can mean
Hurricane Alaska is a sobering album — or at least one for sobering up — but it might be the right kind of bitter medicine to drink when you’re in a funk.
Originally posted on Adobe & Teardrops