Gabriel Birnbaum, who spearheaded the expansive Wilder Maker album Male Models a few years back, returns with a solo set that he recorded over three days in upstate New York with friends Will Graefe (guitar/bass), Adam Brisbin (guitar/bass) and Jason Nazary (drums). In the press release, Birnbaum says he took inspiration from James Joyce’s collection of short stories, Dubliners: “Many of my songs overlap with the scenarios in that book: people who think they have a way out and then something happens and then it’s just like, ‘no.’ It’s a classic human experience.” The result is a series of songs that explore the struggle to survive in an unforgiving world. Birnbaum reminds me here of John Prine, Tom Heyman and others who mine humanity from the mountains of despair.
Life is cruel. Life is harsh. And escape is a fleeting beast that, too often, comes from a bottle with friends at a bar. Birnbaum approaches his protagonists, who range from young women to aging fathers, with compassion and respect throughout. In some ways, the 12 tracks play out like journalistic dispatches from the shadows. The opener, “Laughing Backwards,” sets the tone: “Every dream I dream is escape/as if trouble can’t fly or trouble’s too young to find the bar/with all my friends/laughing backwards to forget/tomorrow.” We know what the future is sure to bring, from the drudgery of work to the worst of the worse to yet another increase in our already usury-rate rents.
Pessimism runs rampant, in other words. Cynicism, too. Good times often seem like a decades-old sitcom few experienced firsthand, if at all. Long before social distancing fell in and then out of favor, of course, social media had already split us and pitted us against one another. You like what? You like who? How dare you criticize my favorite! And don’t even mention politics, where trolls set the agenda. Madness reigns supreme. What can one do but close our eyes and dream a dream we know we’ll never realize?
“Alison, Alone Again” is a vivid vignette that strikes at the heart of modern life, presenting a striking portrait of a lonely woman and her shadow twin. It sounds like a Frank O’Hara poem set to song; like O’Hara’s best works, it has no beginning, middle or end. It’s a moment frozen in time. “See You Happy,” for its part, could well be Alison’s beau trying to tweak her heart to match the happiness he feels when with her, though his flush-in-love emotions blinds him to her reality. The cogent “Same as You,” another highlight, explores the illusionary closeness that fans experience with those on stage and how it can be shattered with a glance.
“The More They Come Around” aside, the songs of Patron Saint are primarily mid-tempo and slower, with the folk-rock feel accented by a jazz-like flavor due to how the recording process unfolded. Rather than share and/or rehearse the tracks with the band ahead of time, Birnbaum waited until they were in the studio and then trusted in his bandmates’ talents. The result is a strong collection of songs that grow stronger with repeated plays.
The Old Grey Cat 