Sex God Cowboys, The Sad Album
Sex God Cowboys, The Sad Album
The Smiths, The Cure, and The Replacements are a few of my go-to bands that I often cycle through just to move me along after a heartbreak or a bad night at the bar (often the two are one and the same). After all, what could make your life feel less-shitty than to hear just how incredibly shitty someone else’s life is? I have found it to be a terribly therapeutic process. Well, my apologies to Mr. Morrisey, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Westerberg, but Sex God Cowboys’ newest LP, The Sad Album, might be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.
Aaron Maine, the leader of the Purchase College-based three-piece, frequently shifts his tone between a somber, drunken stupor to an enraged alcoholic across the thirteen songs. The result is both frightening and heartbreaking. The opener, “Apple” is the first of many tales of lost love and rejection: “The meanest girl he’d ever meet/was the one he’d love so dear/but now he only loves in fear.” The melodies sound like something off of a lost Pavement or Sebadoh record.
Granted, by the first third of the album, you realize that all of the tracks sound extremely similar and that it was not out of jocular irony the group titled the release The Sad Album. Even Maine admits “I write my songs with the same pitch/I’m an apathetic son of a bitch,” on the track “Sea of Gin.” However, it is in the relentlessness of the subject manner and tonality of the melody that keep the record so lugubrious and far from boring. The addition of various horns, accordions and organs give your ear something to stumble around in, and there is an immense amount of energy in each and every song. The penultimate track, “Wolf”, is the most playful number (in a spirit-crushing sort of way), depicting a patient and persistent animal accompanied by a chorus of howling souls.
The Sex God Cowboys have put out an excellent record to ease my reoccurring phases of depression, and now I’m just happy that my love life is not as tragic as the material on The Sad Album.
Reviewed by Dave Feldman.