Something Old
But if I had to say something, it would go something like this. Maybe country music works when you're willing to put yourself on the same level as the working class that country music was originally designed for. It doesn't even have to be as serious as Isbell's "Save the World," a great example from 2023 of a country song that touches on politics but reaches for the gooey emotional center of it. Note that the protagonist in the song makes not a single judgment about guns one way or the other. But, like, if you're going to be singing about how people on welfare just use their welfare money to buy chocolate, then you're doing the bidding of the oligarchs that you claim to be against. And that ain't country, yo.
Like I said, doesn't even have to be that serious. I've been listening to the Chicks' 1999 album Fly on repeat this week. Some love songs, some "woman scorned" songs, all of it country in the pop mold that was popular in the late-'90s. This was pre-"anti-Bush" sentiments from the Chicks, so there really isn't any political stuff on here. And yet, by making comfortable, heartwarming, kinda corny, but ultimately emotionally true music, they reach the point anyway: human kindness and equity. As opposed to the oppression and hate that a lot of the chart-toppers are preaching these days. (The current Billboard #1 is Zach Bryan, and he's cool, but we can save that for later.)
Something New
Well, it still works for his new one, Doom Singer. It almost feels like a doubling-down of the gloom and the... well, you saw the title of this album already. I like how Ian Cohen put it in the recent Stereogum feature on Farren: Music for those "presenting as a nice guy in public while feeling like a jerk in private." Feels like a juxtaposition that PoYB often dabbles in—sure, it sucks out there, and I'm doing my best, but boy oh boy do I feel at fault here.
And it's a trick you can ignore, if you're not into magic shows like this. Just ignore the fucking lyrics, and you'll hear some of the best indie bedroom power pop this side of fun.'s Aim and Ignite.
Something Borrowed
Music critic Brendan Menapace presented the argument from a distance in his recent post-death reflections on Buffett. It wasn't that he was making such an argument from either side, but instead remembering the argument that his friend's dad had made years ago.
"But I think what this debate does is show Buffett can be, and probably should be, seen on a similar plane as Bruce—and my friend's dad did a pretty damn good job defending him. It helps that his Springsteen proxy opponent tried to just rest on 'But it's Bruce!' as an argument.
It reminded me of when I was watching Tim Kaine and Mike Pence debate before the 2016 election. I was sitting in the waiting room of the emergency veterinarian clinic in South Philly because my cat went on a hunger strike when I had gone to England on vacation. I watched Kaine trying to form attacks that didn't stick, often speaking too quickly, making it so all Pence had to do was chuckle and calmly respond to things, easily brushing off any ad hominem argument Kaine tried.
I vividly remember the sinking feeling of realizing, 'Holy shit Pence doesn't have to say a single thing to win this. He just has to not be a weird aggressive asshole.'
That's basically the only strategy my friend's dad needed in his Buffett vs. Springsteen debate. Every time he was faced with 'But, but, "Born to Run" is so meaningful!' all he had to say was 'It certainly is. But that doesn't mean Buffett doesn't also have meaningful lyrics. "I don't know where I'm gonna go when the volcano blows" is plenty meaningful.'"
Read the whole thing HERE. I love a furiously silly argument, and this is fun writing, but I also acknowledge the cop out Menapace takes when he doesn't make a pro-Bruce or pro-Buffett stance himself. Maybe that wasn't the point of remembering this little anecdote. My takeaway is that there are people out there who sincerely find depth in the music of Jimmy Buffett, and I come away wondering whether that is actually true. I literally have no idea. I've never heard the deep cuts. As is often the case when a popular musician dies—I guess it's time to do some exploring.
Something Blue
I also probably wouldn't recommend watching any of the videos. We're talking pure trauma porn at this point, 22 years later. I remember in sophomore year of college, I was part of the small cast of what was only half-jokingly referred to as a "9/11 comedy." There were jokes, but the overall supposition was that this was all taking place on September 12th, and had a pall of sadness over the jokes. And so, to prepare for our roles before each performance, the cast would sit in the green room and watch 9/11 videos (I think there was a compilation on YouTube).
I think it made sense in terms of getting "in the mood," so to speak, but it was also pretty gruesome, to watch a plane crash into a building over and over (and also, probably more pointedly, to hear various talking heads on news stations react in real time to the second hit, over and over). There's something especially frightening about the idea that we as a collective nation spent the entirety of the day of the country's worst tragedy glued in front of our televisions. That the screens served a perverse sense of comfort, even with the knowledge of how discomforting those screen have the capability of being.
So yeah... I do not recommend.
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