Today, Montreal singer Sean Nicholas Savage dropped his long awaited 8th (Can you believe it?) album called Life Is Crazy out on Arbutus Records.
I feel like I am transported to the 1980s ballad style of music a-la Bonnie Tyler.
Life Is Crazy is one of those albums that pulls your emotional strings.
About Life Is Crazy:
Life Is Crazy, the accurately titled new record from Sean Nicholas Savage, is unlike anything we’ve heard from the cult balladeer. No drums or bass on the album, the accompaniment consists strictly of pure piano and lush strings, leaving Savage’s songwriting bare to the listener like never before.
“for a fresh direction here, i’ve attempted to reduce the focus to just songwriting and singing. particularly contemplative ballads, which through the years remain closest to my heart. i’ve aimed for a vocal spirit and energy that closely resembles my live performance, which is an integral part of my identity as an artist not always represented in my recorded work.”
Life Is Crazy is a bold and attuned record. Conceived in his transition to theatre, it marks the dawn of a new era for SNS, and a long-awaiting return to the full-length LP format. This will be Savage’s first album release since completing a revered master-cassette trilogy – Magnificent Fist (2016), Yummycoma (2017), and Screamo (2018).
Lyrically, Savage grapples with his signature themes of perception, identity, and the unknown, among others. While still abstract, the metaphors and subject matter are effortless and more inviting than ever before. New to Life Is Crazy is a narrative tone removed from time.
“there is this thing on the album where i was trying to write to the future to an audience that doesn’t exist. you know, we’ve talked many times about how an audience is exponential, as we see what is niche or outsider today is often more popular tomorrow. there’s a lot of that in ‘years from tonight’ which really sums up how we never know those future versions of ourselves. Also the album closer ‘in the silence of the crowd’ depicts just how invisible that can feel. That resonates in a few of the other songs too so i thought it was a cool thing to touch on since it feels sometimes like the only hopeful glimmer these days.”
Life is Crazy gets:
/10.
Sean Nicholas Savage – Life Is Crazy [Streaming]
