Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart by The Black Lips
by Lana Fleischli
Picture this: first Wednesday of the school year. Everyday I’ve woken up with moths in my stomach. No, not butterflies. Moths. It’s a nervous feeling that I haven’t been able to kick. So yeah, Wednesday morning! I put on Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart for the first time. The song “Hooker Jon” immediately caught my attention. It’s a rowdy song. It’s fun, yet a little out of pocket, which I actually really liked about it. It’s really like The Black Lips are saying, “This is us, take it or leave it.” Well, I’m taking it!
Again, I’m listening to the album, and I am entering the freeway. Suddenly, my car beeps. I look at the dashboard to see “Fuel Reserve On.” Basically, I’m out of gas. A nightmare. I pull off at the next exit and make my way to the nearest gas station. All the while “Rumbler” is playing. It honestly felt kind of fitting because in my mind, if I was in a movie and this happened, it would be funny for “Rumbler” to be playing. Kind of ironic I guess. Like, my day is a shitshow and in the background, an incredibly upbeat country rock song is playing!
I get out of the car in the middle of the song, so it pauses as I fill up my tank. I get back in the car, having a freak out, thinking I should just play a song I know. It will be comfortable. I turn on the car, and “Rumbler” is still playing. Suddenly, my panicked self, on the verge of tears, smiles and drives off.
As I’m getting back on the freeway, “Holding Me Holding You '' comes on. It made me feel uplifted. I’m honestly not so big on country (besides Dolly Parton, but we all know she’s on some other plane). However, these songs really stuck out to me. The Black Lips are a whole other category. They really give zero fucks and I love it. Zumi Rosow is so cool. She plays saxophone in the band, and I always tend to think of saxophone as “not rock and roll”, but it totally is! The different instruments that you might not think of immediately add so much depth to the music, It gives it layers.
Later on the drive, I hear “Get It On Time,” which is very different from the others. It’s slow and slightly reminiscent of the 1950’s. Reminds me of “Doo Wap” groups, because of the backup singers. There’s pain in the voice and it’s just a very beautiful song.
So, I get to school, nervous. The moths are there. My friends waited for me to walk in, which was really nice. I guess the moral here is that I probably would’ve shown up to school crying from being overwhelmed if I didn’t listen to The Black Lips that morning. I could just write, “This album is great!”, but I felt like this story could say so much more about the effect this album had on me even when I didn’t realize it.