Liner Records LIN003: 2nd October 2006
1. Fucked & Far From Home
“Picking through the pieces, just tryin’ to find something I can hold”
2. A New Career In A New Town
“I never wanted this, you always wanted more than this”
3. These Days
“With the night so wide, there’s nowhere left to hide, loneliness has kept us alive, for so long”
4. The Happiest Man Alive
“But, if I found your cigarettes, then I’d smoke them just to taste your breath, one more time”
5. Resolve Is Never Stronger Than In The Morning After The Night It Was Never Weaker
“Falling in to bed, with the wrong person again, oh well… what the hell”
6. Hearts Break Every Day
“Now I just, see the wires, holding us up, and dragging our hearts, to such dizzy heights, well I’m sick, I’m sick of those dizzy heights”
7. In The Midst Of All This Joy
“‘Cause I’ve learned, what not to say, and I’ve learned, when to look away… and it wears me out”
8. Some Things Never Work Out
“Horoscopes lie, they’ll just fuck up your life, day by day”
The first two words of this album are “Drinking alone” which gives you an idea of what is to follow. The next line is “Fucked and far from home” which gives you an indication of the dark humour too. It’s a record that is best listened to in the late hours, something about the mood demands it. The sound is most easily described as Richard Hawley backed by 3rd LP era Velvets. Many of the songs have been premiered as demos and as streams on MySpace but only ‘The Happiest Man Alive’ has been officially released before. There is much more here than just that classic single, including my new favourite Kelman song ‘These Days’.
The levels of aggression in the songs builds almost imperceptibly towards their finish. Sometimes, like at 2.30 in ‘Fucked & Far From Home’ this loud tension suddenly subsides and leaves echoing silence and it feels like all the air has been sucked from the room. There are many other magical moments like in ‘These Days’ when a gentle wave of Cymbals drift in after the line “Loneliness has kept us alive… for so long”, it’ll send shivers up your spine.
‘Loneliness Has Kept Us Alive’ is an album about resolution in the face of defeat, it’s about putting up with life’s struggles and like the lyrics say “Shrug it off, hearts break everyday, now I know today’s just another day”. It’s out in a fortnight but until then you can buy Kelman’s first two singles from their site (Between them, they have three songs that aren’t on the album).
Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
