by Sara Mae (@scary_mae)
Talking Kind’s It Did Bring Me Down says it flat out, “I thought seeing you would bring me down. And it did - it did bring me down. You make me feel so small.” Through interactions with different “you” figures in almost every song, Pat Graham of Spraynard, now Talking Kind, is processing grief, feelings of inadequacy, and distrust of the world around him. The lyricism works because Graham’s approach isn’t quite callous. Rather, it is boisterous in its willingness to admit the harder truths. In an interview with Brooklyn Vegan, Graham says, “There’s some dark stuff on this record, but it’s all looked at through a ‘hehe’ lens.” One instance of this comes in a song that leans towards Ty Segall garage rock, “My Truck.” Graham writes, “I used to hate myself, then I bought a truck.”
It is impressive what Pat Graham can do with spareness. For as much as he opens the album impressing upon us how much his talking gets him in trouble, (the first song “Trouble” was recorded with Sam Cook-Parrot of Radiator Hospital), he famously banters a lot between songs during live sets. One song is two lines in its entirety (“Under Appreciated”), and much of the album uses repetition to rework or emphasize the same lines. At its most powerful, the repetition can create surprise: “I don't think I'm ready. I don't think I care if I'm ever ready.” This line comes from a hot spot on the album, though it arrives as a slowing-down: “Pretty Flowers” is a clear standout. Graham builds a hypothetical scene of visiting the subject’s grave, but writes about pulling over to cry instead. About a minute and 45 seconds in, there’s a change in the guitar tone that sounds warbly, watery, and decays as the song hits its final refrains. After this powerful, intimate moment, the album continues on with its upbeat dryness, even rhyming “ready” with “spaghetti.” The vocal compression in production gives the music a kind of restraint, and takes the edge off some otherwise incendiary lyrics, “I'm doing lots of drugs instead of doing chores.”
There’s nostalgia to the quality of the music, the vocal delivery of “Brand New Face” is somewhat reminiscent of the Mountain Goats, as Graham sings towards the surreal, “Take me down, take me downtown for a brand new face.” “Under Appreciated” has an early 2000s triumph and good humor to it — think Clockstoppers, but this album feels current in its scope of rock stylings and in its approach to bleak subject matter. “Trader” starts off as a more ambitious song, sweeping reverb, a bigger sound, sort of like the arena indie pop of Japanese Breakfast’s “Be Sweet.” The song explicitly talks about distrust of the government. There’s one cover on the album – Radioactivity’s “Trusted You” which seems to fit into the larger narrative of the record. There’s a disorienting quality to the sound— something like tremolo, like a car’s windows are only open on one side. It creates a disconcerting feeling, even in the midst of a beautiful whining guitar solo, a wavering chug insistently layered on top.
The last song is a seemingly earnest praise song for Philly singer-songwriter Greg Mendez. It’s so earnest it almost feels like Graham is clowning on Mendez, but, with a couple variations, Graham repeats, “If every single person on the planet was Greg Mendez, we'd live in a world of peace.” it is meaningful that this song should come last, and seems to suggest Graham wants us to reach towards the people we admire, the people we love most, in times of uncertainty.