Here’s an album worth exploring with 13 songs that feel like someone trying to make sense of the world without shouting about it. They move through war, faith, money, power, and people, but always from a human place. It’s less about answers and more about noticing what feels wrong, and what still feels worth holding onto.
Song 1: Return To The Stars
Acoustic at its core, the voice recites a story. The war of men that see no end. With their machines of destruction. All these borderlines won’t matter at all.
It’s the futility of war, and about how we’re all going to be forgotten, turn into the dust we are. The moon will fall from the sky.
Our sun will expand.
And the earth will die.
And we’ll all return to the stars
As the dust we are.
Song 2: ICE Tras La Máscara
A sound so deceiving, almost ironic. A soft picking of the guitar and strings. It’s a commentary, done in the most non-threatening way, about the trying times we live in. Where joining a death squad is sold to you as a dream, where you even treat the consequences as a dream. The guitar sways you. The kind of song a cat can sleep to. It’s the antithesis.
Our land and sea
Is cut from above
Where there’s nobody left
To give you any love
This eagle no longer
Has your back
ICE tras la máscara
Song 3: NRA No Friend Of Mine
A little skip in your feet. A little teasing sound. A drum that thumps, that stomps, with a good dash of beautiful strumming guitar. A feeling you got as a child when you met your head voice. When you felt cool for telling someone off.
That’s the kind of mocking sound this one brings, almost like a chant you can’t, or shouldn’t, forget.
NRA no friend of mine
NRA no friend of mine
NRA no friend of mine
NRA just another headline
Song 4: Grace & God
“Grace & God” is with Shankh Lahiri on tabla drums and backing vocal. There’s something so spiritual and auspicious about the Indian tabla. It evokes peace. There are different ways to play the tabla at different times of the day, and its impact on the nervous system shifts with that. That’s what you feel listening to this track. It’s a breath of fresh air. It’s disconnecting from horror and unplugging just enough to feel alive again. It’s a prayer to God.
He lit up a candle
In the back of my mind
To burn out conditions
That had me blind
If I could ever be free
Would I let go
Om, om om
Song 5: Indian Killer
Now that we’ve been transported to India, it could use some addressal.
Indian killer
A Native land
Poison these waters
For your oil man
You kill my buffalo
Damn Uncle Sam
A coyote trickster
In a white tribe clan
Places that were colonised carry impacts as deep as identity itself. At its core, this entire album shows a big middle finger to the fascism floating around.
Song 6: Robin’s Song
In such trying times, we have to find community. People we trust. People we want to be like. Where hate isn’t culture. It’s the softness in humans. You hear that warmth in the bending notes of the guitar, taking you through highs and lows, but you’re doing it together. It makes you feel like you’re melting into that warmth.
I’ll face the monster
That consumes the man
I’ll be your witness
That takes the stand
I’ll sing the words
That need to be said
So you don’t have to
Feel alone
Song 7: Folklore Stories
We’re back feeling sprightly. Back in the human spirit. It’s a little notorious. It creeps up on you just to tell you:
Don’t let them fool ya
You’ve been caught in a spell
Don’t let them fool ya
A myth is still a myth
Song 8: I’d Like To
Sweet harmonica in the air, like the smell of oranges. A feeling that’s wishful. A sort of theme to live by.
I’d like to make crazy amounts of money
Just to give it all away
I’d like to think there’s a higher power
But it ain’t no kingdom’s hall
I’d like to see wherever we go
People help each other out
I’d like to burn a candle in the dark
For those who hold a heavy heart
It’s a beautiful thing to want. Again, the softest rebellion packed into a song.
Song 9: Don’t Fall In Love With An Artist
To be an artist is to resist. All that disturbs. To think beyond the self. To dedicate yourself to a life that doesn’t fall for the traps laid out by systems and structures.
Didn’t your momma tell you
Not to fall in love with an artist
If you don’t want life to be the hardest
Don’t fall in love with an artist
Song 10: Throw It All Away
A song you can’t help but laugh to. A history lesson on throwaway culture.
They said
You can throw it away
You can throw it away
Yeah buy that plastic
And throw it away
The song feels like a cosy blanket made of all the plastic the earth is smothered under.
Song 11: Haves and Have Nots
The guitar goes in circles, like the pattern of how the system creates and treats haves and have-nots. A sleepy little song that’s cried all night and finally found a way to rest.
If you come from nothing
You know nothing is free
Can’t shake a dollar
From a hollow tree
Song 12: Gas Was a $1.89
It all starts to make sense if you trace the steps. A country-style song that moves as fast as the system has played its people.
It took a pandemic
To thin out the line
So you can fill your tank
At a $1.89
Now you’re drinking
Champagne and wine
In a big empty town
There ain’t nobody found
When gas was a $1.89
Song 13: Life On Mars Peace On Earth
So where to now. Mars, I guess. To leave the icky, sticky mess and move on. We’ve gone too bad, too far. And now we have to get as far away as possible. That’s how the rich are dealing with the monster they built. Abandon all hope, all who enter.
