Boy Without God: AEM002 Boy Without God
Album Description
“Boy Without God” suggests some type of existential searching, and his lyrics reflect this humanistic outlook in “Holy Holy Little Fist”. “I know fate is a lead coat/weighin on our/silky ties and dead bolts/ all our exoskeletons/ I know fate is lead, molten/pouring into/forms we cannot understand/ guided by our own two hands.” This rejection of fate, this emphasis on the earthy (in the same song he declares, “We are fields of wise goats defecating joyfully”) can be disorienting for listeners used to music drenched in irony and cynicism. But the conviction with which he sings seems to say: so be it. His deep, growly baritone – which he often over-dubs multiple times – recalls Matt Berninger of The National, but that doesn’t stop him from pushing his voice to the upper reaches of his register until he’s at a full out scream. Sincerity is only revolting when it veers into melodrama, and Boy Without God is anything but that.
“If You” is an intimate, hopeful ballad–the yin to the yang of “Holy Holy Little Fist”. Boy Without God adds his distinctive orchestral temperament to an otherwise sparse guitar track, adding smudges of horns and vibraphones to create a warm, welcoming palate. You get a sense of his extreme vulnerability here, but it’s an endearing vulnerability, not a pitiful one. In the same way that Elliott Smith used to turn his sadness into beauty, Boy Without God has a talent for turning his loneliness into something more. (Ampeater)
AEM002 Boy Without God by Boy Without God is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.