Album Review - Just Got Back from the Discomfort ---- we're Alright - The Brave Little Abacus

It has been two years exactly since the last time I sat down and wrote anything about music. I was fortunate enough to have a friend in my life that sent me an album worth writing about again. The album that really inspired me to come back is called Just Got Back from the Discomfort ---- we're Alright by The Brave Little Abacus. This is the band's final and only full-length album that was self-released in 2010. The album name is kind of poignant to me since it's been this long for me, and it is kind of ironic that I also just got back from a long time away. As I will discuss further in this article, the album title is a perfect description of what the album is about.

The first aspect of this album that commanded my attention throughout was the eclectic use of instrumentation, the mastery of said instruments and the overall musicality of it. I stress music and instruments because the vocals of the lead singer are not something to die for. He sings passionately and you can hear the pain and genuine emotion in his voice, but he does not have a singer's voice. The music makes up for that lack and then some. My ear first caught the impeccable use of horns in 'A Highway Got Paved Over My Future, I Drive It Getting To School' and 'The Blah Blah Blahs'. I am a big fan of horns and they were included masterfully. I also loved how seamless the transition was to acoustic guitar in 'Can't Run Away'. Throughout the album, there is a profound use of soundscapes and pure instrumental tracks that exude the same emotions that came through with the lyrics that preceded it in the track.

The lyrics are another major component of this album that give it personality. The album as I understand it is about the constant state of discomfort the artist feels throughout his relations in life. This is portrayed in the powerful poetry seen throughout. I say poetry because even without the music, the lyrics standalone carry so much weight. In the song 'Untitled (cont.)', in the last verse he says:

"And we're all our own co-pilots
In our cockpits made of tin
And when we think about each other
We despise the states we're in
Can't tell you that it's better
Because I'm truly not that sure
But I do think that it's better
Because this way we are sure
That we're not happy yet"

The artist repeats the same use of the 'we are our own co-pilots in our cockpits made of tin' idea in the song 'It's Not What You Think It Is'. The consistency behind this idea and the constant analysis of the state of mind the artist - and listeners that relate to this feeling - finds himself in is a quest; a quest which at first results in an unrestricted emotional ambiguity: is it happiness? is it better? with the only certainty being that happiness has not been attained yet.

The journey to find answers and positive results to this self-analysis steps into a ride of loneliness. A loneliness that lends to the realization that we are all alone, no one cares as powerfully exhibited in the last verse of 'It's Not What You Think It Is'. The song right after 'Allston Massachusettes December 2009-January 2010' is an instrumental which further cements the idea of solitude in no one singing or speaking.

The artist then comes out of their loneliness funk in the song 'Bug-Infested Floorboards—Can We Please Just Leave This Place, Now.' It is evident in the title: he wants to leave this place now. The place being the loneliness and the complaining. He implores himself to "Just shut up and swallow" which is equivalent to not complaining and getting over it. He leaves this place towards the end of the album on this penultimate song to "Go to summer where the sun won't go down".

On the last song 'Orange, Blue With Stripes' is where the 'we're Alright' part of the title comes into play. He makes an ode to Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play" and starts his album the way he ends it with thinking about Hannah and how it was 'Way before now'. You rarely see albums come perfectly full circle like this. The final aspect that aided in this seamless flow is the album's structure. The album's non-conventional song structure of longer songs mixed with shorter songs, smooth transitions from one song to the next make it all sound like one full song from Track 1 - Track 12.

All in all, I would give this album a 10/10. A piece of art that mixes mastery in prose, instruments and direction.

If you have never listened to this album, please do here:


Thank you for giving this album review a read, and as always, stay tuned for more awesome music!