Lemon Ice Forever!

Pink Reason - Sixteen Years

Continuing on the subject of songs I listened to a lot during two thousand and eleven: Dang. It’s about time this record came out. I had leadoff track “Holding On” featured in the little sidebar playlist on my Myspace page circa 2008, back when that was a thing you did when you liked a song¹.

Thinking back to the strange self-obsession that caused everyone to create Myspace pages and usher in the era of social networking sets it in pretty clear relief: Nobody shoots the moon in the self-analysis department like Kevin Failure. For all the talk of “misremembered nostalgia” in music this year, Shitting in the Garden (and “Sixteen Years” in particular) seems like the sound of perfectly remembered nostalgia.

Being able to think backwards with that kind of accuracy can probably drive you crazy, which explains the near-constant comparisons Failure gets to the certifiably crazy (and great) self-analytics of Skip Spence and Jim Shepard. A lot of guys bandy about the term “confessional singer-songwriter” to get laid or work with Kanye or whatever, and that’s fine, but Pink Reason doesn’t appear to be going for either of those, and he does a pretty good job.

¹ For the record: Other songs in the playlist included “Boo Hoo Hoo” by the Strapping Fieldhands, “My Bartender” by Earthmen and Strangers, “Places West of Shawnapee” by Skygreen Leopards, and “I Can’t Wait” by the Sneaky Pinks, a song so perfect that when Nobunny was still semi-anonymous he more or less betrayed his identity by continuing to play it live.

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