The Fat Angel Sings

Echo & The Bunnymen’s brilliant 1997 album ‘Evergreen’ is issued on vinyl for the first time, and as a 2CD deluxe.

London Records are to reissue Echo & The Bunnymen’s triumphant 1997 ‘comeback’ album “Evergreen”, which was notable for featuring the UK hit ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’.

The album has been remastered and will be issued on vinyl for the very first time. It will also be available as an expanded 2CD deluxe edition with 21 bonus tracks. Exclusive is a 4-track CD EP called “Peel Session 1997“. This features four tracks recorded at Maida Vale and broadcast on 16th September 1997, three of which are previously unreleased (‘Rescue’ was on CD 2 of the of 1997 2CD special edition).

“Evergreen” marked a critical and commercial renaissance for the band after more than half a decade’s hiatus. In January 1997 Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson and Ian McCulloch came back together in a recording studio for the first time in ten years. The band entered Doghouse studios in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, as fate would have it at the same time as Oasis, leading to ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ featuring a 24-year-old Liam Gallagher on backing “yeah, yeah, yeah!”s and tambourine shakes. 

The album entered the UK chart at number eight, in July 1997 and while the two further singles may not have repeated the success of the first, they were certainly popular enough and well played on the radio at the time (they were ‘I Want To Be There (When You Come)’ and ‘Don’t Let It Get You Down’

This was the era in the UK of releasing two CD singles (CD 1 & CD 2) and so there were plenty of bonus tracks to go around. In fact remarkably, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ had six new studio recordings across the seven-inch vinyl and both CD singles. All six of those tracks are appended to the album on the first disc in the forthcoming 2CD deluxe edition. The second disc consists of live tracks and some radio sessions (mostly acoustic).

Speaking about the album today, Ian McCulloch is modest enough. He says it contains “at least three great songs, which is three more than most bands have in their entire catalogue”. He’s referring to ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, ‘Forgiven’ and ‘Just A Touch Away’.

“Evergreen” will be reissued on 18th November 2022, via London Records. The exclusive Peel Session 1997 CD is limited and numbered and is supplied FREE with any order of the 2CD, vinyl or the bundle.

Wednesday’s first single for Dead Oceans is such a spectacular maelstrom of emotion that it’s hard to know where to even begin: Its winding, multi-part journey? Those overpowering yet strikingly textured guitars? Karly Hartzman’s blood-curdling yet exultant screams? Absolutely everything about that outro? The lyrics of ‘Bull Believer’ alone, so dense in their imagery and seemingly disparate references, are worth poring over. But you don’t need to listen to the episode of the country music podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones that the band has cited as an inspiration to be swept away by it.

Wednesday’s approach is visceral, not analytical. Bullfighting becomes a potent metaphor for exploring the cycle of addiction and the intoxication of violence: “God, make me good but not quite yet,” she implores, wounded in a daze, before projecting her anger through a video game: “Finish him!” It’s up to you to figure out how it all bleeds together, but best surrender to the noise – it might just flicker into silence.

The best Alex G songs feel like they’re on the verge of collapse, stretching their foundation to a breaking point or very nearly losing the plot altogether. These are either simple songs twisted and gnarled into complicated ones, or entire albums’ worth of ideas crammed into four-minute roller-coaster rides. Either way, Alex G songs—and in turn, albums—are really not like anything else in popular indie rock at the moment. 

“God Save the Animals” is the most succinct and effective collection Alex Giannascoli has ever assembled, an album that takes the best bits from his already-expansive discography and places them in a wonderfully compelling conflict. For example, you have the quite beautiful, homespun sunrise of a song “Early Morning Waiting” placed directly beside “Blessing,” a gear-grinding assault on the senses.

‘Runner’ opens with a pretty modest and heartfelt sentiment: “I like people who I can open up to/ Who don’t judge for what I say, but judge me for what I do,” Alex Giannascoli sings over an acoustic guitar progression reminiscent of Soul Asylum’s ‘Runaway Train’. This being an Alex G song, of course, things quickly get a little weird (“They hit you with the rolled-up magazine”), and, by the time he repeats “I have done a couple of bad things,” somehow cathartically grim. You even begin to question whether he’s singing from the perspective of a human being – after all, that scream he unleashes is one of primal anguish, and the album it’s lifted from is called “God Save the Animals”.

But while Giannascoli likes to keep things at least a little bit messy and abstruse, ‘Runner’ is a stunning reminder that no one walks that line between accessible and eccentric songwriting quite like Alex G. More than any other time, he really takes the ball and runs with it.

“I don’t have a lot to say,” Alex Giannascoli, who performs as Alex G, says with a laugh after his first song behind the Tiny Desk. Judging from his discography alone, that’s not something you might ordinarily accuse the Philly singer-songwriter of: nine full-length albums in the last dozen years, in addition to a couple EPs and a film soundtrack.

His prodigious output of melodic, peculiar indie rock has earned him a cult-beloved status. True, he got to play guitar on a couple Frank Ocean tracks — but for a more accurate indication of the fervour of his fanbase, turn your attention to the internet: the hours-long playlists of unreleased Alex G demos painstakingly assembled by fans on YouTube, for example, or the raucous chatter among his fans on message boards. At the Tiny Desk, Alex G and his band dialed down the volume for a handful of songs from across his vast discography. They started with a couple songs from his stellar new album, “God Save The Animals”, and also played some deeper cuts: “Gretel,” a wonderfully creepy track from 2019’s “House of Sugar”, and “Snot,” the closer from 2015’s “Beach Music”. Under the layers of electronics, experimentation and vocal effects on Alex G’s studio records, you might lose sight of Giannascoli’s primary strength as a songwriter and the emotional core of his music. But at the Tiny Desk, the stripped-down sound only underscored the sturdiness of his craft — no explanation required.

Set List: “Runner” “Miracles” “Gretel” “Snot”

Musicians Alex Giannascoli: vocals, guitar Samuel Acchione: guitar, vocals John Heywood: bass, vocals Thomas Kelly: drums Molly Germer: violin, piano

This is what you get when you dive into an Alex G record, despite what some of his more popular songs might suggest. It’s been this way for a while, but never has he captured every side of his songwriter ability quite as well as on “God Save the Animals”. 

Alex G – ‘God Save The Animals’ out now on Domino Recordings.

Even if you know nothing about the lore surrounding Ethel Cain, ‘American Teenager’ immediately registers as a massive heartland anthem. For the uninitiated, it also serves as an introduction to the all-American tale she masterfully lays out in “Preacher’s Daughter”, delivered here in its most accessible form – when the American dream has dimmed but not fully subverted, and searching desperation has yet to take its toll. She offers a glimpse of small-town life with references to high school football and crying under the bleachers, memories that haven’t lost their tinge of romance. ‘American Teenager’ doesn’t mask disillusionment so much as it soars through it, using it as fuel for her own path to self-actualization: “I don’t need anything from anyone/ It’s just not my year/ But I’m all good out here,” she sings, which could sound like slyly twisting the truth for the sake of hope. But how you could not believe it when out here sounds so magnificent?

Ethel Cain performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded August 19th, 2022.

Songs: A House In Nebraska Thoroughfare Crush Sun Bleached Flies

Hayden Anhedönia (aka Ethel Cain) – Piano / Vocals Steven Colyer – Guitar Caden Clinton – Percussion

An artist who continues to exist on another creative plane entirely, Björk is consistent in pushing the envelope across almost every conceivable element, album after album. Fossora remains among her most joyful records of recent ties but also ranks among her most personal. Bringing her family – son Sindri and daughter Ísadóra – along for the ride, the project took shape amidst a pandemic return home, her mother’s passing, and Ísadóra leaving the nest. 

Art pop’s most unpredictable auteur is back with her tenth studio work. Björk’s tenth bass-clarinet-featuring album draws from traditional Icelandic music to contemporary classical, reggaeton, and gabber club with collaborators El Guincho, Gabber Modus Operandi and serpentwithfeet. The title is made up by the artist and she says it “‘is the feminine of fossore ( digger, delver, ditcher ). so in short it means ‘she who digs’ ( into the ground).

It’s been her biggest gap between albums yet, so we’re very pleased to have a new Björk LP in our hands as she’s a firm favourite around these parts. Almost forty years into her wide-ranging musical career now and she’s showing no signs of slowing down in her remarkable creativity.

‘Fossora’ both pulls from and expands her past work with rich string orchestras, lush electronics, and hectic beats, whilst touching on new themes of parental loss, homecoming, belonging, and motherhood.

Björk explains how she decided to make mushrooms the spirit fungus animating her 10th album, Fossora,

“each album always starts with a feeling
that i try to shape into a sound
this time around the feeling was landing on the earth
and digging my feet into the ground

how i experience the “now” is also woven into how it is written
this time around 7 billion of us did it together
nesting in our homes quarantining
our mutual “now” is being so long in one place
that we shot deep roots down

my new album “fossora” is about that
it is a word i made up
it is the feminine of fossore ( digger, delver, ditcher.)
so in short it means “she who digs” ( into the ground )
therefore when i was describing the sound to the musicians on it ,
i would call it my mushroom album.”

Björk’s unconventional approach to sound has long been etched into the fabric of her music, but the idiosyncratic structure of ‘Ancestress’ serves as another way of honouring her mother. A devastatingly stirring epitaph, the song finds Björk wrestling with grief in terms both poetic and startingly human – and often both, like when she describes her mother’s dyslexia as the “ultimate free form.” As she stretches her voice and the accompanying instrumental over the course of seven minutes, the ballad juxtaposes sweeping strings with off-kilter percussion to offer a vivid portrait of their relationship, its echo reverberating in the harmonies provided by her son, Sindri Eldon. “Nature wrote this psalm/ It expands this realm,” she sings, gracefully ceasing control. In this act of unlocking memories and letting go, she suggests, we also end up seeing ourselves.

I am so immensely grateful to Pierpaolo Piccioli for designing and giving all of us the phenomenal Valentino costumes for this video . i enjoyed our talks and his understanding of mothers , their colour palette and agnostic spirituality , i thank him for his intelligent understanding and adding his beauty and talented craftsmanship to this short film .

At least three of the tracks – “Ancestress”, “Her Mother’s House” and “Atopos” rank among her best work, and she’s back on form vocally too, but the album’s biggest achievement lies in its balance – a perfect equilibrium of playfulness, accessible and thematic cohesion.

taken from new album ‘Fossora’ out 30th september

‘Pressure Cooker’ was already a pretty fleshed-out Dazy song when Militarie Gun entered the picture, but it takes more than a Venn diagram approach to collaboration, instead using it as a chance to tread unexplored territory. On the surface, it’s the sort of hooky alt-rock jam that Dazy’s James Goodson amply supplies on his solo material, but vocalist Ian Shelton manages to inject it with the spirit of hardcore – not by screaming, but with the bits he adds in the background or just before belting out the chorus – while Justin Pizzoferrato’s mixing helps balance out any potentially opposing elements.

Things just sort of keep piling up, and no sing-along anthem this year made it quite so easy to join in the commiseration.

released March 14th, 2022

Written by Dazy & Militarie Gun.
Dazy recorded at home.

Dazy & Militarie Gun performing “Pressure Cooker”

Indigo Sparke returns with her magnetic second full-length album “Hysteria”, recorded with producer Aaron Dessner (The National, Taylor Swift). It’s a huge and beautiful sweeping work, one that possesses a rare, reflective power. From the first few notes, in the first song, “Blue”, something chilling and captivating pierces straight into the listener’s chest.

With little more than a couple of chords and Indigo Sparke’s incandescent voice, ‘Pressure in My Chest’ sketches out a vast and open landscape, where “the light is filled with wonder/ And the echo of our love.” The singer-songwriter has a penchant for poetic lyrics, but “the wasteland of my forgotten screams” is a pretty direct reference to her experience of living in Taos, New Mexico, surrounded by huge desert. And while the verses are rife with vivid imagery, it’s the repetition of the chorus that evokes just how raw and invigorating of an effect that isolation can have on one’s sense of self.

Elevated by Aaron Dessner’s subtle production flourishes, it circles around a simple sentiment in a way sounds ancient and holy, lit up by the hope that finding your breath can ignite something much bigger.

From the album “Hysteria”, out now, via Sacred Bones Records

For some reason it’s hard to think about major life changes without ascribing them a wholly positive or negative connotation. In most cases, for example,  it feels like relationships end with at least one party looking back on it as a complete waste of time and a prolonged source of stress. Which, yeah, probably fair, but there’s a certain sense of self-awareness gained from these situations that could conceivably be key to making future relationships work—or certain red flags made visible preventingother future relationships from commencing.

It feels like with age comes the wisdom to reflect on this type of experience and see something deeper than the happiness or sadness it so clearly imparts in us—to see the full value or significance of it instead. Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out, the second LP from Augusta Koch’s post-Cayetana project Gladie, seems to explore every facet of this idea, from Koch’s new (literally) sober perspective on her adult years to the fact that a considerable faction of the record was rescued from previous recordings that were, in Koch’s own words, “not good.” 

Working in their own studio granted the five-piece the time and space to fully explore the musical and lyrical ideas that comprise these 11 tracks about hitting the replay booth and analyzing the footage from a new and slightly removed vantage point, totally unmoored from the strong feelings that proved overwhelming in the moment. “We decided to name the record this because it deals a lot with the theme of shifting into a new mindset, and with that change you can objectively look back and see what you were going through without your thought processes being clouded by being in the thick of it,” Koch explains.

“I think it’s also an ambiguous title in a way,” she adds, “because I like the idea that it can be interpreted as both a positive and a negative. Like, the duality of both ‘you don’t know what you’re in until you’re out’ could seem sad because it implies hardship and turmoil, but it can also seem hopeful in the sense that although you’re going through something really rough, there’s hope that it will get better—you will change, you will survive it, and you will be able to view yourself and your surroundings from a totally new perspective.”

1. “Purple Year”
Perhaps not the most original idea, but very relevant to the title, the record begins how it ends. The same chords and cello (played by our very talented friend, Mark Glick) that are in “Something Fragile” are present here, just a little more stripped down and with an uneasy feedback swell slowly swallowing any form that the song started with. We thought this would be a cool way to signal to the listener [hacker voice] “I’m in.” I don’t know, The Weakerthans did it on “Reconstruction Site” and they literally can do no wrong.

2. “Born Yesterday”
“Born Yesterday’” was written about eight months into not drinking anymore. I felt like I was experiencing a second adolescence. I was completely overwhelmed and flooded with emotions. 

‘Born Yesterday’ is a catchy and exhilarating single all its own, but it really comes alive in the context of Gladie’s second album. Kicking things into gear after a gentle instrumental called ‘Purple Year’, the song frames Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out as a record about the joy of starting life anew even when it seems most fragile. Bandleader Augusta Koch doesn’t name all the shifts that led her to embrace this rejuvenated mindset, but it brings with it an unwavering commitment to, and belief in, her own ability to change. For a rock song with such a sturdy, driving rhythm, there’s a strange fluidity to it: When Koch proclaims “The way I feel I could fill the ocean/ On my own,” she lets her voice glide around those last three words, as if riding out the possibilities.

3. “Mud”
“Mud” is about moving through life as a late bloomer. There’s kind of this trope about late bloomers being a negative thing, but personally I find it to be the opposite. To me, all good things take time to marinate, and we should embrace the fact that people move on different timelines. Nature doesn’t all bloom at the same time. 

4. “Hit the Ground Running”
I did a lot of evaluating what love means during this time. While reading bell hooks’ book All About Love I was inspired to think of my own love ethic. I landed on “to love in a way that the other person still feels free.” I want to love and be loved in a way that doesn’t feel restrictive, and where there is always room for growth. My favorite part about this song is the horn part that Mike Park and Brian Lockerm created.

5. “Nothing”
I kept kind of coming back to this idea of not wanting anything—not in a depressing way or necessarily a nihilistic way, but just of taking the word “want” out of my vocabulary. How that feels to not always be forcing a progression, that constant American agenda to push and push and push and push until you die.

6. “Soda”
“Soda” is a love song, maybe not your typical love song. The song at its root is about being around people who make you feel comfortable in your skin. I use the word “normal” in jest because a lot of what our society deems as “normal” behavior is kind of, in my opinion, wrong and isolating to a lot of people. We are taught to hate ourselves, that we aren’t enough, love has conditions, etc. “Soda” imagines a world where we can create our own “normal” when we’re around the people that make us feel seen.

7. “Heaven, Someday”
“Heaven, Someday’” was written during the height of the 2020 doomscroll-bad-news factory, when we were all putting in overtime. It’s about trying to combat the fear of the outside world and your inner demons at the same time. There’s still some hope to hold onto, though, and it’s important to remember that even both the inside and outside feel inhabitable. 

8. “Fixer”
This was a song I [Matt] wrote a couple years ago, but it never got a proper recording/release and it felt like it fit with the theme of the record, so we decided to include it. It’s about recognizing parts of your past that can make your present feel shaky and your future feel uncertain. Sometimes you need to look back to understand what’s ahead of you, even if there’s some difficult reconciliation to be done.

9. “Smoking”
“Smoking” was written about having a panic attack in a gas station parking lot in the town I grew up in. More thoughtfully, though, it’s about having one of those huge life moments when you know everything’s about to change forever and you have to gear up and just let it happen.

10. “For a Friend”
“For a Friend” is about having to witness someone you love grieving the life of someone they love. Acknowledging the fact that there’s not much you can do for someone who’s experiencing that type of pain except for sitting with them through it.

11. “Something Fragile”
This song is about coming out of a bad place and acknowledging the fact that depression can create blinders in your relationships. I felt like it made sense being the last track because it encapsulates so much of what the record is about. Can we move through huge life changes, in relationships with the ones we love, while allowing them to also grow and change at the same time?

With the LP via Plum Records (Koch’s own label formed with her Cayetana bandmates)

Jake Webb’s ghosts are far more than mere spectres. On the Perth art-pop polymath’s fourth album a former lover – played by Stella Donnelly – demands recognition on ‘Proof’, the planet’s plight intrudes on ‘Something to Worry About’, while ‘Neon Cheap’ suggests the seductively sharp edge of social media.

A standout from Methyl Ethel’s latest album, ‘Proof’ has all the elements of an infectious pop song: a dazzling hook, a hypnotic groove, the right kind of dynamics to keep the song interesting. But it’s the tension between the song’s propulsive strings and the call-and-response vocals from Jake Webb and Stella Donnelly that take the song to the next level, raising more questions than it answers. A sense of political urgency is woven right into the titular line, “Take a chance on proof,” but the actual subject of the track remains ambiguous.

“What can you see?” asks Donnelly with calm persistence, and Webb’s evasive responses hint at ignorance, disorientation, and ultimately even delusion. As it blooms into something dreamlike and theatrical, their voices almost angelically merge into one before getting warbled down, more vulnerable and human than ever amidst the chaos.

With an eclectic palette of jagged synths and jinking rhythms, these songs are invocations that pivot between clarity and confusion so that they form their own reality. Dispensing with boundaries, Webb makes the unknown tactile. He’s called the album his “least personal record yet”, but these spirits bear his distinct fingerprints at every turn.

“Neon Cheap” out now:

With the first Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts in six years now fewer than 50 days away, a return to where their rebirth began feels fitting. East Rutherford, NJ 7/18/99 was only the band’s second US date on the Reunion tour. It followed a 36-show European leg that saw them playing beloved outtakes (finally released on “Tracks“), exploring the depths of their own catalogue, and rounding into form ahead of an audacious 15-night stand at Continental Airlines Arena to kick off the American run.

The 7/18/99 recording, newly mixed from multitrack masters by Jon Altschiller, bears a strong sense of purpose and urgency for reconnection. How thrilling it must have been to not only hear “I Wanna Be With You” for the first time, but to take Bruce’s title statement literally as he calls in the band members one by one in the song’s intro. We want to be with you.

As commonplace as “Prove It All Night” might feel in hindsight, long time fans hadn’t heard it played with the E Street Band in 14 years, and surely many others in attendance never had. These early Reunion shows were marked by bang-bang pacing at the top as the first two songs roll right into “Two Hearts.” Nils Lofgren may take the solo in “Prove It,” but Stevie Van Zandt’s return to the band is undeniable in his call-and-response backing vocals, which extend into “Two Hearts.”

“Trapped” was a standout when the band christened this building back in 1981; in 1999, Patti Scialfa’s vocals lift the chorus higher while modern keyboard textures from Roy Bittan and Danny Federici give “Trapped” a subtle recharge. “Darlington County” teases the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” for several bars before the rowdy road trip begins, giving Clarence Clemons his fifth fine showcase of the night already.

Following that crowd-pleaser, three radical rearrangements show the Reunion tour isn’t here just to play the past by rote. The country arrangement of “Factory” shifts the tone of the song entirely, removing the drudgery-implying repetitive thump of percussion to yield something more contemplative about the meaning of “the working life.” Lofgren’s work in particular shines.

Bittan and Federici similarly recast the tone of “The River” with a long introduction behind Bruce’s mournful harmonica. The spare reading, accented by Danny’s accordion and Lofgren’s pedal steel, bears some influence from Bruce’s recordings for and around “The Ghost of Tom Joad”. Not every fan liked the rearrangement, but there’s no denying its disquieting impact and the bold choice to reinterpret a classic.

The full-band “Youngstown” might be the most successful of the three. With a trio of players on stage, the Reunion tour had a fatter, richer, and more forward guitar sound than the 1984-85 or 1988 tours. “Youngstown” makes the case that the E Street Band can be a full-throttled rock band whenever they like, and “Murder Incorporated” reinforces the point, riding Max Weinberg’s big beat in a sharp, stunning performance.

One has to admire Bruce’s sequencing as “Badlands” arrives to take us over the top and end a nearly flawless first half of the show. The de facto second set begins with the joyous invitation of a zippy “Out in the Street” in another appealing reading that the audience eats up.

After barely addressing the crowd to this point, Bruce takes to the E Street pulpit during “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out,” which features forays into “Red Headed Woman” and Patti’s own “Rumble Doll,” plus a nod to the great Curtis Mayfield with snippets of “It’s All Right” and “Move On Up.” A reverent “Loose End” follows, and again one has to readjust one’s mindset to remember the years when it was unimaginable “Loose End” would ever be released let alone played in concert.

The summer setting brings “Sherry Darling,” led by the Clemons’ horn, and Brendan Byrne ‘81 vibes abound. “Working on the Highway” makes a light-hearted companion before Bruce shifts gears down again with a solemn reading of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” that starts acoustic before the band adds gentle accent colors.

The full sense of return simmering all night is sealed by the first few notes of “Jungleland.” As great as the show has been to this point, the magisterial appearance of the “Born to Run” epic seals the deal between Bruce, the band, and the fans. Clarence Clemons meets the moment and plays his saxophone solo with complete confidence. They. Are. Back.

The set ends with a lively, guitar-drenched “Light of Day” and more snippets including “I Need a Train,” “I’ve Been Everywhere,” and a delicious snatch of Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme” (Brucebase, how did you miss that one?). While “Light of Day” only served two tours of duty (1988 and 1999-2000) as an E Street set-closer, it did so with distinction, wrapping the set with momentum.

The encore opens with Springsteen in the confession booth, revealing secrets great, small, and embarrassing with admirable candor in “Freehold.” The song first appeared at Bruce’s solo acoustic show at his old high school in 1996 and its inclusion the first six nights of the 1999 NJ stand seems to suggest that as much as Bruce is back home as a local hero, he’s equal parts humble local man.

“Stand On It” is the final “Tracks” song in the set and features some dazzling displays from Bittan and Clemons in one of only 21 performances ever. From there, “Hungry Heart,” “Bobby Jean,” “Born to Run,” and “Thunder Road” give the people what they want, each sounding fresh after a long layoff.

On an evening firmly focused on the recommitment of Bruce and the band, “If I Should Fall Behind” delivers the sentiment with spotlight-sharing vocal turns from Nils, Patti, Clarence, and Steve on a song recorded and released while the band was on hiatus.

The night closes with a dedication to the Kennedy family–following the passing of John F. Kennedy Jr. two days prior–as the intro to “Land of Hope and Dreams.” Bruce’s modern day “People Get Ready” (so much so that he shares the writing credit with Curtis Mayfield) captures the American spirit as much as any song in the canon.

The 7/18/99 recording is the earliest Reunion show yet to appear in the Live Archive series, and it shows just how ready they were to begin what we now see as their modern era, one that will enjoy a new chapter come February when Bruce and the band will roar back to life.

words by Eric Flannagan