The album opens with “Boomerang,” with a deliberately lo-fi quality to the sound as the song begins. “All you need is a reason and time/A little break and back to write/Another day, another fight/What else do you need to feel/How much grace is left to steal.” The song then kicks in to become a solid rock number. I’m so glad some folks are still writing songs like this. It has a strong beat and some powerful work on guitar. “Boomerang” is followed by “Troubled Heart.” This is the song that initially got me interested in this release. It has a somewhat more relaxed vibe, and that vibe and its lyrical content were what drew me to it. Here are the song’s first lines: “I know we don’t talk about it much/Lately there’s a distance between us/Sometimes I get lost alone in the dark/And it’s hard to say I love you with a troubled heart.” There is also some really nice work on guitar. “Please wait for me/I’m catching up to where I need to be/I need to be.” I think we can all relate to those lines as we try to get to where we feel we should be. Each of us needs to know that special someone will stand by us while we work things out. This is one of my personal favorite tracks. “Get back to the parts of us we miss.”
The zip code in the title of “Brooklyn 97202” lets us know he’s not singing about New York. No, this is about a neighborhood in southeast Portland, Oregon, where Steve Drizos lives. It comes in with a solid, driving beat. “It all comes down to how you see it,” he sings at the beginning. After a minute or so, it kicks in. And in those moments it makes me think of summer and youth, vibrant and exciting. Summer is especially anticipated in Oregon. I lived there for several years in the 1990s, and everyone would be so happy when the damn rain finally stopped. “The color’s back and I feel good/In my neighborhood/I’d keep the lights on if I could/You know I surely would/But I don’t complain/I don’t explain anymore.” This song was chosen as the album’s first single, released in July last year. Then “Kick Into Touch” has a lighter, more pleasant vibe as it begins. On this song, Steve sings, “Luckier than I should be/Lover, friends and family/Surrounding me/Stick around through thick and thin/Been to hell and back again.” Those lines remind us to appreciate what we have, and how lucky we are to have those special people in our lives. Nearly two minutes in, the track picks up in power. And it is in this song that he delivers the line that is the album’s title. This is another of my personal favorites.
“Shadow Life” has a more somber vibe at the start, a sound that is grey, creating a feeling of something that is not quite complete, something that is being restrained. Check out these lines, which open the song: “Rise and shine/Wake to find/A chain around your heart/Shake the dream/It’s always been/Hiding in the dark.” Yet this one too kicks in, and spirits begin to rise. I love that moment when the song turns that corner, preparing us. “Waking up from the shadow life/The shadows will come no more.” It then returns to the main feel for the next verse, in which he sings, “The past/Tries to cast/Shapes upon the wall.” I love those lines. The song develops a certain beauty, and is another of the disc’s highlights. These lines also stand out to me: “Things that used to turn you on/Only making you feel older.” That’s followed by “Katie,” which was chosen as the second single from the album. It was written for his wife. “Katie, sing me a song tonight/Something that’s beautiful and bright.” Sometimes it can be just a word from that special someone, and it feels like a song that can carry you through a day. But we need it. We need the truth of it. “And tell me please what’s my next maneuver/It seems that I lost the plot somehow.”
“Beautiful Nothing” kind of eases in, creating a sense of atmosphere, a swirling mist from which something will soon emerge, or into which we will go. “Fall into the beautiful nothing.” There is a slow build here that is compelling, and toward the end it bursts into another level. The album concludes with another of its best tracks, “Inside Outside,” which has a gentler sound. “Went out to the ocean side/Spilled my problems to the sea/The ocean don’t give a fuck about me.” Yup, the world itself doesn’t care about us. It continues with us or without us, and our personal woes have no effect on any of it. That can be completely depressing, but here he takes a different approach, singing “So I do my best to stay out of my own way/Stop worrying away my days, worrying away my days.”
CD Track List
- Boomerang
- Troubled Heart
- Brooklyn 97202
- Kick Into Touch
- Shadow Life
- Katie
- Beautiful Nothing
- Inside Outside
I Love You Now Leave Me Alone was released on February 16, 2024 on Cavity Search Records, and is available on vinyl as well as CD.
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