DESCRIPTION:
1. Have A Safe Trip, Dear - 0:00
2. June Miller - 8:25
3. Pale Horse Sailor - 11:52
4. Mindel - 15:28
5. I Get My Kicks For You - 18:53
6. Mooch - 25:48
7. Take It With A Grain Of Salt - 31:52
8. Sink Is Busted - 37:09

Listen on Spotify so that someone might get paid: https://open.spotify.com/album/7gND0yyHVA1xxN6SevP4Fn

Coming off the heels of the phenomenal post-hardcore masterpiece, Rusty, Jeff Mueller came together with bassist Fred Erskine, guitarist Sean Meadows, and drummer Doug Scharin. At this point in their musical lives, these men had already been busting their hands: Meadows in the post-hardcore Lungfish, Scharin in the slowcore Codeine, Erskine in the math rock, emo, and post-hardcore Hoover, and Mueller in the math rock, post-hardcore, and post-rock Rodan. They were a super group of super groups, and their first endeavor together was Engine Takes To Water.

The album begins with a legendary opener in "Have A Safe Trip, Dear." Mueller's spoken word echoing Brian McMahan and Britt Walford's from contemporary and fellow Louisville band, Slint. But Mueller's shouting proves to be far more than anything those two could muster. A booming voice as Mueller screams and narrates a story about a man waiting for a woman to come home. Mueller uses his guitar tics from Rodan to produce surreal and dreamy tones, Erskine backing on the bass gives the song a kind of trudging backing. Scharin's drumkit sounds like thunder, and Meadows' rocking guitar brings it all together. It is dreamlike, it is dark, it is rock, it is beautiful.

It's a wonder then why the album didn't follow with this. The second track, "June Miller," is a fun romp of a song but nothing like the opener. We're introduced to Meadows as a vocalist, and it is difficult to understand anything he is saying except a few words here and there. It is a fun song nonetheless, and its shades appear on every June Of 44 album that follows Engine.
“Pale Horse Sailor” begins June Of 44's penchant for nautical themes. A sailor lost at sea is this song's story. It introduces some of the more ambient aspects of June Of 44 which would return again and again throughout their career. Again, Mueller's booming voice being wonderful as the sailor.

“Mindel” is a song about someone waiting for a loved one in the hospital, a sad but rocking piece. Couple this with June Miller and it shows that June Of 44 have the skills to both tell stories and make good rock music. One could view this song as a follow-up to “Have A Safe Trip, Dear.” It’s interesting to note the contrast of rocking, head banging music to stories of pure angst about someone waiting for something to make you feel better. Moving around, “rocking out,” feels good. But it’s feeling good to darker stories. Very fascinating how we seek catharsis in darkness, but normally we avoid darkness in our day-to-day lives.

“I Get My Kicks For You” is Meadows vocal territory, a self-aware and longing piece about songwriting and missing someone. Meadows’ brooding vocals as he mumbles into the microphone are just right for this song. Erksine breaks out the trumpet here and it is unexpected but certainly welcome in every way. It is perfect in this song. The song plays out to feedback for a full minute and a half, leading into another highlight for the album in “Mooch.”

“Mooch” is peculiar, though that’s par for the course for the album if you aren’t used to this kind of music. It has elements of being a lullaby that the album hasn’t seen thus far. Mueller carries some of the imagery from Rusty’s “Gauge” here, talking about smoke stacks and sidewalks. A song about how a robot of a man uses cigarettes to take away from his troubles. Depressing stuff, the guitar work is so dreamlike and melancholic to complement. It is one of the biggest standouts on this album.

“Take It With A Grain Of Salt” is one of the rockiest songs June Of 44 ever did, a fantastic penultimate track considering the closer. It is in keeping with “Mooch's” theme and motifs. However at some point the lyrics lose me, as Mueller is talking about a ship and mangling the enemy. But it comes back with universal ideas such as beating your drum, living your own life. It also talks about taking a pill to be able to get back to work, like the pill is actually just holding him back from who he really is.

“Sink Is Busted” is lonely, a lovely, lonely, sad song closing out this lovely and sad album. Mueller is apparently talking to someone he has great affection for. Telling them to come see him, he's lonely but working out his life. Louisville artists in Jason Noble, Tara Jane O’Neil, Brian McMahan, David Pajo, and others tend to have a common theme of longing for someone to come back to them. It’s a feeling that can be teased out of all of us, mixed perhaps with regrets, and nostalgia. This song almost perfectly encapsulates that feeling without being melodramatic or heavy handed. It has such an air of sincerity to it.