Bad History Month – Old Blues

A gloriously sardonic album...

Sean Sprecher is a name you should know. If you already do, you can skip this bit. If you do not however you can continue to read, or just skip to the final paragraph and the score.

Oh good, you're still here. We knew you would be. Sprecher feels like a pivotal, but at times illusive, member of the East Coast’s DIY scene. Since 2007 he has appeared, disappeared, and reappeared in various guises and sounds. On new album ‘Old Blues’ he has dug deep and delivered his finest collection of songs to date. Songs that acknowledge, and laugh at, our own personal failings, while trying to add advice of how to navigate the childhood trauma that gets dragged into adulthood. As Sprecher says, “because all laments and complaints should be leavened with humour and optimism.”

The strongest track on the album is the opener ‘Waste Not’. This is not to say after you have played ‘Waste Not’ you can turn it off. Far from it. ‘Old Blues’ is full of songs that are seemingly full of pessimism but are actually pretty hopeful. Many of the track come close to ‘Waste Not’, ‘Childlike Sense of Hatred’ and the epic ‘Want Not’ come close, but there is something about the ‘Waste Not’ that seems to not only sum up Sprecher, but ‘Old Blues’ itself.

First off, the track is 13 minutes long. Ballsy move. Secondly it does not possess any real choruses or repeated sections, meaning that it takes a few listens to get to grips with it. This is Sprecher’s masterstroke. To understand ‘Old Blues’ you have give it time to get under your skin. Parts of it are hypnotic drones, others are lo-fi freak-outs. What keeps it consistent is Sprecher’s vocal delivery. Ranging from whispered croons to bellicose barks, he has a knack of delivery the kind make you pay attention, even if you cannot hear him properly.

‘Low Hanging Fruit’ has some of the standout lyrics on the album. “Maybe there’s hope, in low hanging fruit”, “the ease of squeeze” and “I just wanna fuck anyone who wants me, we don’t need the internet to see the birds and bees” are dank punchlines make you giggle and squirm in equal measure. This is what Sprecher does best. He will either tell you something so heart breaking honest you will either embrace him or blush and pretend you did not hear it.

Musically, as with ‘Waste Not’, and Bad History Month for that, the instrumentation is sparse, but rich. At times, the guitars appear to be tripping over each other. However, with repeat listens it becomes clear that they are layered to sound impromptu, as free jazz sounds chaotic on a first listen. There is a specific structure to them that once you work it out, hits you home like a diamond bullet.

While Bad History Month is its own project, motifs of seminal lo-fi acts pepper the recordings. At times it feels like John Darnielle, or Josh T. Pearson, and Pavement having the time of their lives. Of course, this comparison is unfair. Sprecher has his own voice and sounds nothing like Darnielle, or Pearson, but there is an elegance to his story telling that makes the comparison ring a little true.

What ‘Old Blues’ does show is that Sprecher is very confident with his brand of storytelling. The only thing we do not know is what he will do next. Will he go to ground for the new few years, or use this period of creativity to start work on the follow up? Whatever the answer is, but the times it comes out, we will still be finding new lyrical, and musical, meanings to this gloriously sardonic album.

8/10

Words: Nick Roseblade

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