Music Review: AWOLNATION "Sail"

AWOLNATION

Sail

Album: Megalithlic Symphony

Year: 2011

               Aaron Bruno lives in his own bleak world in the  turbulent  “Sail.”
 

              Delirious synths open the single, setting a lightheaded tone. Bruno screams “Sail” before the first verse. She’s been sobbing for 15 minutes. “I don’t understand,” she keeps repeating. All he can do is apologize. He didn’t mean to scare her. He was driving them to get something eat. A large sign was advertising the latest show premiering at an upscale restraurant. As he thinking he couldn’t believe the acts were still alive, his wife screamed at him to swerve, swerve now!  He turned into the restraurant’s parking lot and rubbed his wife’s arm, his arm jumping up and down a body from her shaking.  

        At home, he sees her eyes crack, forming lines around her mouth he doesn’t recongnize. She walks to the cabinet in their kitchen and checks inside. She brings out his medication and rattling the still full bottle. She sets them on the counter and leaves the room. He’s been ok lately and prefers not to be on a medication. Getting diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as a child has been the root of his problems since he was a child. (“This is how I show my love/I made it in my mind because/I blame it on my ADD baby/This is how an angel dies/I blame it on my own sick pride/Blame it on my ADD baby.”)

                In the chorus, he wishes he take his boat and float, getting lost in the blankness of the water. (“Sail!/Sail!/Sail!/Sail!/Sail.”)

               He’s a horrible person. He could’ve hurt his wife or the stranger whose car he nearly hit. He doesn’t deserve to live. His recklessness has gotten out of control. He’s a freak. When he was growing up, he realized he was like the other kids in his class. Randomly getting up from his seat struck him as normal even as he watched the others stare at him and whisper. Sentences exist but they usually end up garbled once he hears them. Again, he says his ADD has affected him his entire life. (“Maybe I should cry for help/Maybe I should kill myself/Blame it on my ADD baby/Maybe I'm a different breed/Maybe I'm not listening/So blame it on my ADD baby.”)

                The chorus is sung again.

                 Bruno “la la’s” for a bit.

               The chorus is sung again.

             In the final section, he wishes he take his wife with. Together, they could witness the demise of his once perfect world from inside his head. Maybe viewing the destruction will help her relate to him. (“Sail with me into the dark/Sail with me into the dark/Sail with me into the dark/Sail with me, sail with me.”)

            Bruno’s howling, blustering vocals squawk, giving others a chill from fright around him. While he may have been going for deep-seated emotional pain, it’s actually comes across as just being off.

          The divine synth arrangement gets splattered by Bruno’s vocals, ripping apart its beauty with vicious slashes.

               The inebriated “Sail” is in a filmy haze, unsure of where to go and who to follow.
 

 *Edited because my brain blended "high end" and "upscale" together,