Frank from moment of truth7/2/2023 ![]() ![]() In the haphazard, almost nonsensical didacticism of “Discipline,” we hear a voice of patriarchal authority withered finally into pure self-parody, happily abdicated by its owner, revealing only the aching plea underneath that his loved ones stay close and stay connected. In the tender “Adventures Nearby,” a father invokes a stock and cautionary “big world out there” story to try to keep his maturing child closer to home, a ruse designed for his own heart’s protection. They take on lost love and missed opportunity in the elegant waltz “I Never Thought of You That Way,” a theme that returns with a keener sense of dissolution and finality in “Devil By Mistake.” Long-time writing partner Richy Vesecky’s blend of observational acumen and surreal playfulness calls to mind Ray Davies matched with Syd Barrett more than any tough American rock poets.Īs skewed and idiosyncratic as their themes can be, Bango and Vesecky always have one eye fixed on the big targets of the heart as well. His melodies are generally free of blues, soul, and folk devices and full of baroque pop implication. His clever chord progressions flow downstream from the Beatles and the Zombies. He is indeed about as anglo as a mature New York songwriter can get, short of pure affectation. By the end, however, they elect this developmentally-appropriate truth as their own they “choose the given,” as the American memoirist Annie Dillard wrote.įrank Bango has suffered a lifetime of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker comparisons, earned as much by his unfailing, articulate melodic imagination as by his treble-forward vocal timbre. Indeed, the personae in these songs frequently try to bargain, reason, and fox their way out of it. The Truth Fox is ripe with a species of wisdom that most people would prefer to avoid if they had the choice. The singer’s essential protective myths-safety, stability, agency, and connection-have eroded past his ability to enforce them any longer. The sum effect is that of a terrible but strangely affirmative clarity, perhaps available only at a certain age. It is an acutely personal passage through karma and regret, but it is synced to a larger sense of culture-wide instability and danger hovering just outside the windows of these emotionally rich and melodically generous pop songs. Scene by scene, a man confronts the isolation, loss, and insecurity of age. With many detours along the way, Frank Bango’s new record The Truth Fox proceeds as a sequence of mid-life reckonings and recognitions. Then the damage done when a man is not a man So he must block out the light so no ones sees Now he might be a lot of things but he's not the man you thought he was. There's no safety when a man is not a man ![]() Just to prove he has the power and controlĪnd convince himself that no one understandsīut the terror comes from weakness not from strengthĬausing better men to tremble where they stand Of the pain delivered by the father's hand Where we live and we die and whichever comes firstĪnd he will talk around the truth a thousand ways With a view of the kitchen and a sneaking suspicion that we're not alone Where we live and we die or whichever comes firstĪnd the memory of one thing that used to be something until we drank it up We must imagine this room is the entire universe To the vastness of wall to wall carpeting We Must Imagine This Room Is The Entire Universe (Bango/Vesecky) ![]() To gather together neath this December moon To gather together neath this silver moon Just like the woman who slit both her wrists Hung dull and lifeless on a bulletin board We saw a guy who was stabbed by his girlfriendĪn off duty cop, drunk and strapped to a gurneyĪll together on Christmas Eve in the emergency room So now we're spending Christmas Eve in the emergency room We had a gas leak, the same thing as last week On the day I was born I just simply appearedĪnd a pretty young girl who went into labor We come into this life all the same but, my dear We have nothing to fear but the things that we fear In a world full of strangers the problem is clear My unfortunate haircut and the ill-fitting shirtĪnd imagine that someone is holding my hand I don't think this song could go on much longer ![]()
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