Original release date: 26 February 2008 (Asian Man Records)
Download “Pants” (mp3)
Download “Dog” and “Dogs” (mp3)
Love and Loss
I guess I never expected to stumble onto that baseball glove, but finding it instantly brought me to a standstill in the back of his closet. It had that distinctive scent of toughened leather. Old and worn, the mitt was stiff from decades of neglect. There was still a long forgotten ball in the web.
It triggered one of those happy memories that I needed. On those warmer nights, when he got home from work, we used to play catch in the backyard. This was just during the couple of years that I played little league. I was never good, at least not during games. My throws were always too short or off their target. I don’t think I actually ever caught a ball out in left field where they usually put me. And I only had two hits, both in the same game during my second and final season. But in the backyard, though, he made me the star. Every popup he threw landed in my glove; my diving catches looked graceful; my return throws thwacked into his mitt.
This moment of reverence quickly turned into an overwhelming feeling of preoccupation. It seemed things were not going my way lately. First, there was the most recent of my uneventful break-ups. Then, my dad. Here I was going through his closet, going through everything. I needed a drink. A drink and some music.
I knew where my dad kept the liquor. I poured some Jameson over ice cubes into a tumbler and put Get Better by Lemuria onto the stereo. The first track, “Pants,” opens with a slicing guitar riff. The opening lyrics of this album are addressed to a lover, but also speak to musicphiles like myself. “You never missed a word I tried to fit/ Inside a chorus, inside a verse, all my intros and the bridge.”
The songs on Get Better, Lemuria’s first full length album after an assortment of EPs, singles, and split albums, are written by all three members. Guitarist Sheena Ozzella and drummer Alex Kerns provide the vocals, even singing the lead on songs another member has written. This is the case with this first track. Ozzella sings a misshapen and honest love song written by Kerns. The subject “instantly felt like an idiot,” being overwhelmed by the object of his desire. The song builds in tone to the refrain of “I want my hands in your hair.” The song is about the nervousness of a new love, but the anxiety is reciprocated as one of the final lines, “I guess I gave you butterflies too,” illustrates.
Shit, the nerves of a new love are far from where I am right now. I’m twenty-four, never had the kind of defining relationship I expected by now, and I’m getting drunk on my father’s alcohol while I sort through everything he owned. Soon enough, my sister and I will not have to worry about who will take the liquor.
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve had a number of girlfriends. Some have even lasted a year or more. But none of them have left my heart aching. Maybe my resume of unrequited relationships is one of the things that drew me to this album.
No matter who wrote the songs, Ozzella sings the lead on the ones on Get Better that deal with relationships. Most of the relationships are unfulfilling. In “Buzz,” which is full of drum fills as Kerns circles the kit, the singer bemoans about the decisions that lead to the end of a relationship. There are difference between the lovers, but “at least I still have choices.”
“Length Away” is a lamentation about a long distance relationship. It starts out with just electric guitar and vocals, in a resplendent manner. After the initial verses, the full band is added to the song with a slight amount of aggression. The frustration of the longing is heard the final time Ozzella sings about being “a states length away.”
Perhaps the song that I am most attached to is “Dogs.” It ties these relationship subjects with the secondary theme of the album, the one that is smacking me in the face right now – dealing with the death of a family member. “Dogs” uses death as a metaphor for the end of a relationship. “I feel like you’ve died and I want you back.” But the end of this defiant song is an affirmation of “at least I can say I tried with you.”
As I listened to some of the songs about dealing with death, which are all sung by Kerns, I realized I should stop pouring the Irish whiskey into my glass and return to my dad’s closet. There are two punk ballad songs with sustaining guitar strums. “Wardrobe” is about going through the clothes of someone who recently passed away. The singer finds secrets and sentimental treasures. “I tell your story like a thrifty book/ With the previous owner who highlighted the parts they liked the most.” “Hawaiian T-Shirt” deals with choosing the clothes for the burial. “If you believe in god and the saints of heaven’s gate/ A Hawaiian t-shirt might look bad/ If you're expecting judgment day/ But every funny guy has a serious side.”
Get Better mixes punk and pop in a perfect amalgamation. It also has a seamless and energetic progression. Within roughly 5 minutes, there are three tracks – “Dog,” “Dogs,” and “Get Some Sleep” – that quickly flow from one to the other.
During the 28 minutes of these quick 12 songs, I have managed to give myself a buzz that will allow me to get back to sorting through my dad’s belongings. And I decided to look for his best Hawaiian shirt.
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