|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
SMC 014LP
|
Songs About Water and Trying to Feel Okay is the 12th full-length album by DIY anti-folk wanderer Billy Mack Collector, and the first in four years. Lyrically it follows the narrative of songwriter Billy Mack's journey through life with undiagnosed depression and finally seeking treatment, with each song documenting one of many ways a person can cope with depression. Musically, the album is somewhere at the intersection of anti-folk and early 2000s indie-rock, evoking comparisons to Modest Mouse, Kimya Dawson, Daniel Johnston, and Beat Happening -- however, influences emerge from all over the spectrum, with tinges of traditional American folk, avant-garde, prog rock, shoegaze, folk-punk and just about everything else showing through at different points throughout. Recorded largely in quarantine, it features a rotating cast of over 20 musicians (including, among others, members of Inspector 34, Freddy Fuddpucker, and Jacob Norman Chainsaw Arm) on a large variety of instruments, giving every song its own unique style of instrumentation. Musicians self-recorded and sent in their parts from multiple states and continents, and as tracks and ideas passed back and forth with time to simmer, grow and evolve, each song took on a life of its own and the album grew into something entirely different from any of the band's previous recordings, while still remaining very distinctly a Billy Mack Collector album. The band has always self-described as "happy songs about being uncomfortable" and this album is no different.
|