Random Records with Steve O

The Lawrence Arms - Skeleton Coast

I’ve been putting this off for like half the year now, vacillating between a lack of motivation and a there’s too much other important stuff going on to talk about records sort of mood. But I’d be remiss if I let the year slip by without telling you how fantastic the new Lawrence Arms record is. Skeleton Coast came out in the middle of the summer, which feels like eons ago the way this year has gone, packing a decade’s worth of exhaustion into a (so far) nine months. Alas, there’s a comfortable escapism here, knowing that, for at least a half hour, you can delve into the known quantity of a consistent Lawrence Arms release.

So, where do we start here? If you know me, or if you’ve read any of my reviews on here of Lawrence Arms, or Lawrence Arms-adjacent, records you know how much I love Brendan Kelly’s work. The bassist/vocalist melds high-brow influences with the lowest of low-brow humor, and his lyrics still come out impactful and impressive, all delivered through his gravelly rasp. But, honestly, I think my favorites here, for the first time ever, are guitarist/vocalist Chris McCaughan’s. He’s the more melodic voice of the two, and on his songs he absolutely hit it out of the park.

I think it’s a mixture of the emotional weight of the lyrics and the just overall damn catchiness of those songs. From the glorious, upbeat opener “Quiet Storm” (and its magnificent video starring the one and only Neil Hennessy) through a closer in “Coyote Crown” that mirrors Metropole closer “October Blood” to a T, McCaughan’s songs are all well-crafted and meaningful. “Last, Last Words” revels in one’s own inevitable anonymity and the pause leading into the final third of the song, which builds to a triumphant closing, is one of my favorite musical moments in whatever creative way we decide to curse this year. “Ghostwriter” masterfully mixes some cheerful “ooos” into the chorus. It’s a verse in “Dead Man’s Coat,” itself full of great lines, that seems to sum up how brilliantly this record matches the year of its release: “Change is all we have / Unknown road ahead / Wrapped in a dead man's coat /The future slips through my hands.” Stirring shit indeed.

But wait, you say? What about BK? Oh, he’s just here dropping lines like “I can't justify any of this / I am lonely and collared and pissed / I am a rat in a cage / I am a demon filled up / With hubris and bullshit and shame” from “(the) Demon” or wisdom like “Even the mightiest vessel / Is no fuckin' match for the whales” from “Born to Rot.” Both of these songs, along with “Pigeons and Spies,” feel like they could fit on a Falcon record too. That’s not meant to be disparaging, that’s just the kind of vibe they give off, sounding a little more reckless and chaotic than songs like “Belly of the Whale,” “Goblin Foxhunt,” or “Don’t Look at Me.” The aforementioned “Pigeons and Spies” is probably Kelly’s high water mark here. Dropping references to dinosaurs in the lyrics is clearly a winner in my book, but the rest of the lyrics are so sharp, culminating in the astuteness of the chorus: “But I'm so tired, and you're tired too / I wanna make big changes / But I'm not in the mood.” Right fucking on.

I cannot wait to see some of these songs live, whenever that may be again. In the meantime, the Lawrence Arms have announced a digital livestream for this, the sixth year of the War on Christmas. Details on that here. You can listen to Skeleton Coast on Bandcamp here.