Little C: Parachutes

Guys, it's finally November. Things are going to start turning around now! For years now, the month of October has been essentially cursed in my family. We've sort of decided that we're not celebrating it next year. We're doing September twice and then skipping straight to November. The O month is dead to us. And, as is the case every time life gets hairy, I have been relying on music to pull me through the shit show. Enter frank iero andthe patience (formerly just as grammatically frustrating frnkiero andthe cellabration) with their new album Parachutes.

Frank has said that he feels like life is a little like being pushed out of a plane. None of us asked to be here, and eventually we're all going to hit the ground. It feels like these songs are about the moments in that free fall that we most want a parachute. These are songs about feeling lost and out of control, and about confronting profound loss. Every song has a moment where it feels like it's about to fell apart, the distortion ratchets up or Frank's vocals crack and squeak. Listening to this album felt like meeting up with a friend you haven't seen in a while after you've had a really crappy year and sitting down to catch up only to find out that they've had a year equally as crappy but in a different way. And then it felt like we sat for an hour and commiserated. I came out not feeling less broken, but at least less alone. 

There's a greater range on this album than there was on 2014's .stomachaches. probably due to the fact that Frank has a whole band to record with instead of tracking everything himself from a basement recording studio. There's even an acoustic/folk punk song called Miss Me that shows a potential for more diversity down the road but doesn't feel out of place in the other heavier songs. Then there's 9-6-15. It's a song about the day that his grandfather died and all of the heavy and hard emotions that followed. It's heartbreaking and hard to listen to and I have cried every single time. But also coming off a year where we lost our grandmother I felt like this was a song that got how hard last October was.  

Fair warning, this is not going to be an album for everyone. As much as I love it, it's still a punk album so it's not going to be everyone's bag of chips. But if you're able to handle a little distortion, and you need a melodic help in your free fall, this is the parachute you need.

Happy listening,
Little C