Cody Weathers, one of my favorite music artists and a cool guy I've actually met and played music with, has made an epic new album called "Just a Little Longer". It's free to stream everywhere, but if you buy it at bandcamp you get four bonus tracks, so I recommend doing that. Buy or stream it at bandcamp
Top 5 new songs on Just a Little Longer, evaluated by Cody's original question "Which songs should I use to promote this?"
(Note: The amount of success I've had promoting my own music belies my credibility in this exact question, but...NEVER MIND THAT! I'm in the Flipkids Funklub Nerd Patrol (tm) now! Onward!)
5. Above it All
The chorus melody is very appealing (evocative of the first five notes of "Giant Steps") and the text painting of reverb on "vastness is empty" is perfectly executed; one of my favorite sonic moments of the whole album.
4. Doubt
Like many of the songs, the vocal is a great mix of gentleness and force.
This has maybe my favorite drumming on the album and some really nice interaction between instruments, especially lead guitar and vocal.
At first it seems like the doubt described here is debilitating and ruinous, seductive in the worst possible way, like maybe the narrator is actually the devil. But then the final verse suggests that maybe doubt has freed someone from previously unexamined, accumulated dogma. A really interesting lyric open to interpretations.
"a tear that you are too upset to weep"
How better to describe severe trauma in nine words?
3. Resurfaced
It's too early to tell for sure, but the chorus melody combined with the guitar line might make this my favorite new song. Heart/ear says: so catchy! Mind says: even I also enjoy big leaps!
This is a great metaphor for debilitating trauma, a recurring theme on the album.
"If you love me and you hurt me, I'll relive you endlessly" can't help but remind me of the lyric construction of "No One Could", one of my personal GOATs.
2. What If?
As with Resurfaced, the listener is drawn in by the hooky melody. Then when we actually read and pay attention to the lyrics it's about bone-deep regret, another recurring theme on this album.
What I love about it, and maybe the whole point of sad songs in my musical cosmos, is that by expressing that regret honestly we can acknowledge it, process it, and change our behavior the next time we have a chance to move toward love instead of away from it.
In that way it is related to "How'd I Ever Lose You?", another one of my absolute favorites.
1. Surrender
Every part of this song is immediately catchy. The "Here comes the rain" melody variation in verse 1 hits like a chorus.
Then we get an actual pre-chorus that straddles the line between the major (Everybody knows...) and minor (...the way it goes) third scale degree (a.k.a. Mi) a la "Make Still Your Wings". And no one loves a great '90s pre-chorus more than I do!
The bluesy, one-word actual chorus leaves the whole thing open to multiple interpretations. It seems like the narrator has been wronged and hurt. But is the surrender giving up and walking away to other things or is it giving up what they wanted in order to go back to the person? The final verse suggests it's the second thing.
(Personal note: I got up today and wrote this review at 6:30 a.m. Then I started preparing my usual breakfast at home, which I really enjoy. I listen to music and read comics, have a single sweet treat and coffee...It's a whole habitual thing. I was partway through preparing it when middle child (departing for first year of college next week) invited me to spontaneously go out to breakfast with her and her mom. I do not like changing plans, but with these songs of regret and being present for the people you love fresh in my mind and with her leaving next week, I "surrendered" to the new plan and had a very fun breakfast out with wife and middle child. See? It works!)
Overall, I really like these new songs and of course I love the new versions of the old ones, especially the dynamic and heartfelt readings of Caramel and Mama Earth.
Much like Karl's "Art Is A Lie, Baby", Joni's "Blue", or Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" it is dark and sad - the themes of doubt, loss, paranoia, hurt, regret, grief, blame, guilt, and trauma are almost unrelenting. As such, it almost seems like a weird thing to say I "enjoy" this album but I do.