SOME SHRED OF OPTIMISM
released MAY 21, 2019
ALBUM 28, RELEASE 65
Oh hey, this one. I thought this was going to be something really special when I first started it. I recorded just the vocals and guitars (or, in one case, piano) and set up a Drive folder with the intent of other people doing bass and drums. When no one bit, I just finished it myself. There's some stereo bass on some songs, where the DI bass is in one channel, and the amp bass is in another. Most of the electric guitars are DI as well. Actually, this wasn't how the album started. It started as two mini-albums called What The Light Hits First and Asexual War Paint, where the songs were going to be over 4 minutes and under 2 minutes respectively. They were both making headway when I decided it made more sense for it to just be one album.
"Numbers Game" is pretty solid. I don't like to think it's the best song on the album, because if the best song is track 1 then what's the rest of the album? It's okay though, because "Color My Potential" is also good. I think I'd just heard "What Do You Want Me To Do" by Bob Mould, which was brand new at the time, and I wanted to write something like that. "Piss Track" was, I felt, a necessary rewrite of a song from only a few albums prior. The first version was a song I actually put a lot of effort into, but was hampered by the lyrics being very directly and violently about my hatred for one specific person who, honestly, didn't deserve it. This song took the words of the original, which were all about him, and twisted some of them to be about myself, and how much of an idiot I was. This might have one of my worst album covers. Simplicity is fine, but this looks more like I just didn't put a lot of effort in, which is true, because I didn't. What I recall happening was I made a better collage, but it said "Some Sort of Optimism", which wasn't the name of the album, so I chucked it and made this when I was ready to release it. "Your Door" is a bit different for a HW song. Not radically different, mind you, but my piano songs aren't usually this upbeat. The title track was a late addition. I left a house show early because I was feeling sick AND someone I really hated was there (fun fact: the only band I caught that night were Sweet Pill, who were hot shit in New Jersey based on 1 EP that was also their setlist, moan moan moan). Moving to Philly has made me generally less lonely at shows, because it's pretty easy to just run into someone I know. "Forest Nightwalk" is an odd choice. I first wrote and recorded it in 2017, and it was definitely the best song on that album. Maybe I just thought it deserved another shot? I don't really remember. I wouldn't do that sort of thing now. Still, it's a good song. "Bastards" only really has 1 good bit, but it's "if you were really pro-life, you'd stop supporting soldiers and cops" which I get a kick out of. It's true, you know. "Burning Out The Ego" was a song I liked when I made it, but immediately after finishing it I thought of a better song. It used the same chords as the chorus but with the phrase "that, that, iiiiiiiiiiiiiis a good thing". I battled with that chorus for the rest of 2019. You probably know this as "Draining The Lakes".