Tag: Tim Heidecker album

Review: Tim Heidecker – High School

Tim Heidecker returns with another solid album of fun introspection, soulful singing, biting lyrics, and perspective-changing tunes on his new album, High School. As the title indicates, many of the songs reflect back on his youth and lessons he learned (or didn’t) from that time.

“Buddy” is a song written to his youthful self (“Nothing ever went your way. You told me that things would be better someday.”) and how he wishes some knowledge could be imparted either way to his past self while his parents argue downstairs. “Chillin’ in Alaska” brings in some honky-tonk flavor in a song about appreciating what you have, and “Future Is Uncertain” is a song about staying present – an important thing for all of us, and a recurring them on this album of Heidecker investigating his nostalgia for an era that he’s come to realize wasn’t that great.

This goes further on “Get Back Down to Me,” in which he states, “I’ve been worrying about everybody else but myself. People’s lives, they just slide right into my head.” and vowing to find his own joy – although he apologizes for doing so (“I’m sorry. I’m gonna hit the road. Gonna see some fans and touch some sand.”). He admits on the next track that “I’ve Been Losing,” (“Wondering if tomorrow’s going to be better.”) again addressing how things seemed to have been better in his past but knowing in his heart that he’s not entirely sure what he sees in his rear view mirror is correct. He believes “the road up ahead will be filled with looking back” and hopes “the memories will surround him like a warm bubble bath.” He wants to let the past slide away from him, but can’t quite manage it.

“Punch in the Gut” is a tale of a kid coerced into a parking lot fight outside his place of employment and paying the price force it – even after he wins. “Stupid Kid” is a fun tale of Heidecker watching Neil Young perform on TV and being inspired to play music of his own (“It seemed so easy that even a stupid kid like me could do it.”)…and then being stunned to hear Young’s album version of “Harvest Moon” was different on the album than it was live.

Heidecker teams up with Kurt Vile on “Sirens of Titan,” which includes some synth bass and beats to throw you for a loop. It almost sounds like a 1980s Don Henley song. “I’m a German Catholic, an Irish spastic,” Heidecker sings about growing up as “a B-minus kid” sneaking beers in his parents’ basement and wishing he could start a rock band with his friends on “What Did We Do with Our Time?” He wonders where the time of his youth went, and was it spent on anything worthwhile? In contrast, he can’t help but wonder if what he’s doing now is worthwhile either. On the closer, “Kern River,” Heidecker finds some peace in his memories and in the present (the only place and time in where those memories can exist).

High School is full of raw honesty and nostalgia, delivering lessons on presence, impermanence, and attachment along the way.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Tim Heidecker – Fear of Death

I’m not sure if Tim Heidecker is best known as a stand-up comic or a musician. I first heard of him when I heard his new record, Fear of Death. I then learned he’s also a stand-up comic, and I wasn’t surprised. The album’s themes of death, existential dread, ennui, and, yes, light found in darkness, are all prime subjects for comedians and Heidecker’s perceptive wit is on every track. Collaborating with members of Weyes Blood, The Lemon Twigs, and Spacebomb on the record doesn’t hurt either.

A classic country / Americana sound permeates the entire record. “Prelude to Feeling” opens the album with the instruction (or is it a warning) that “You’re about to feel.” It’s true. The record is one to make you think. “Come Away with Me” is a tale of Heidecker pleading to his lover (voiced by Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, who provides dual and backing vocals throughout the record) to leave the hot and smelly city to live in the country with him. It’s a fun little rocker.

“Grass is gettin’ browner, trees are fallin’ in the heat…We’re movin’ backwards,” they sing on “Backwards” – a song about devolution and how we should be helping each other instead of leaving the planet a dried-out husk for those to come after us. Despite this grim outlook, the song is upbeat and full of great slide guitar.

The title track has the great line of “Fear of death is keeping me alive.” as garage-rock guitar bounces around in the background and Heidecker proclaims he’s done partying and growing. “I’m moving on, I’m getting out. I can’t take any more lies,” he sings on “Someone Who Can Handle You,” a heartbreaker in which Heidecker finally gives up on a relationship that has worn him down to the bone.

“Nothing” might be the most gothic song you hear this year as Heidecker and Mering sing about there being nothing but a black void after we shuffle off this mortal coil. Heidecker tries to juggle Hollywood bullcrap while thinking all the time that none of it matters in the end. “Say Yes” opens with a CCR-like groove and then melts into a psychedelic bit of great bedroom rock as Heidecker pleads with his lover to stay the night with him.

The big and bold, and funny, “Property” is a tale of how cemeteries will eventually be turned into rental properties, shopping malls, and golf courses, because the dead won’t mind and by then we, the living, won’t care about the dead anymore. “Little Lamb” is almost a lullaby over Heidecker claiming he’s moving on from a lover because he’s tired of being fawned over and needs the time alone.

His cover of “Let It Be” is an alt-country delight and a moment of calm introspection for Heidecker as he muses on his mortality. “Don’t want money, don’t want fame, don’t want to be a household name,” Heidecker claims, but quickly makes the disclaimer that he truly doesn’t want those things without love in a Jackson Browne-like toe-tapping rocker. Mering takes lead vocals on “Oh How We Drift Away,” a haunting. lush song about how even good friends can drift apart over time.

It’s a lovely record that shows how accomplished a performer Heidecker is and embraces not only mortality, but also the mortality of institutions. It’s an album about impermanence, which everyone needs to embrace sooner or later. Why not do it sooner and enjoy life in the present? Heidecker’s on board.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]