last night becomes this morning review

review taken from indie workshop

There is an old saying in regards to Country music that Country is one of the few genres that celebrates Saturday night, but does not forget to sing about the Sunday afterwards. Swearing at Motorists is not a country band by any stretch, but this album seems to capture the sentiment of the nighttime thrills and the morning after regrets.

Beginning with ‘Losing the Battle, Losing the War’, the album sets out a strong tone of melancholy. Not the kind of teen age angst melancholy, but the tired traveler coming home from a three month trip in a foreign land style of melancholy. Even songs like ‘Still Life With Bottle Rockets’ that are up-tempo and poppy, speak of the drudgery of the day and trying to remove or rearrange your life into something new, other than the moments and minutes that have transpired up to this point. ‘Waterloo Crescent’, another great simple tune, has some beautiful vocals and maybe shows off the most enjoyable side of singer Dave Dougham’s voice. Occasionally, Doughham comes across as a bit too much of a crooner for my taste. He can have a voice like a dark wine. It can feel thick and red and a little like stage blood made of corn syrup and dye.

The repeated theme of this album is the wear and tear of running around in a less than superstar band for the past several years. There are questions about what to do with ten dollars, what to do with a lover who you spend more time apart from than you spend time with, and what happens when you live your life on an installment plan of slow motion suicide. For an album that can bring the pace up a bit and throw out a snappy number here and there, this is a lyrically pretty grim album.

The track “You Will Not Die Tonight (Probably)” continues on the bleak streak, speaking of a girl who has mixed too many party favors. It is a great song, but there is a repeated line “You’re as quiet as a stolen monkey”, that sound so ridiculous and out of place that it definitely detracts from the seriousness of the subject matter.

I heard a rule once that an LP has to be at least 30 minutes long; otherwise it should technically be an EP. I am not sure who creates these rules, but Last Night… falls short of the LP Mendoza line by 59 seconds. Really it is close enough. Last Night is dark, but its brevity keeps it from being oppressive. It has a loose late night feel, but without much buzz or noise. This whole album reminds me of the Kris Kristofferson’s classic ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’. Swearing at Motorists has not created a seminal record, but they have created a very accurate snapshot of a man who still smells slightly of whiskey from the night before.

Travis Hutzell

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