Wednesday, August 29, 2018

ALBUM REVIEW: Brett Newski - Life Upside Down (Releases September 7, 2018)




Don’t Listen to Brett Newski”. The rogue Milwaukee-area musician carries the anti-slogan like a mantra to every offbeat stop on his often relentless touring regiments- from basements and venues across America and Europe to the jungle of Sri Lanka, a long stint in Vietnam and a very short one at a local Wal-Mart. It’s a fitting catchphrase for a guy who has opted to carve out his own role in the musical landscape. Not only genre-defiant but also fiercely independent, he doesn’t quite fit into the contemporary banjo-pop trend, nor the nihilistic folk-punk racket, nor the 90’s-nostalgic indie aesthetic. What he does excel at is incorporating all of these influences into a wholehearted and unapologetic presentation of his authentic self. He has taken a long road to find out who he is, and it is on Life Upside Down that his self-deprecation and aloof brand of defiance is wrapped up in his self-imposed satirical classification of “dork-rock”.

A self-made artist in a made-up genre, equally out of place as he is out of time, Newski would have it absolutely no other way. Life Upside Down, to my ear, is an album about finding strength in uncharted territory. It is about finding your own way and your own voice, and putting everything you’ve got behind it, even when it’s uncomfortable, and especially when it’s upside-down, because that’s where life happens.



Life Upside Down follows 2017s LP Songs to Sink the American Dream. Newski has been admirably transparent with fans about his struggles with anxiety—the type that many people relate to and not enough talk about—and Songs to Sink… served as a scathing assault on the many outside perpetuators of stress and uncertainty. After allowing some distance from that exorcism (represented tangibly by February 2018s EP The Stars Are As Bright As a Nightlight), Newski detaches from all of those noisy and poisonous things and leaves them in the dust as he opens the world back up and charges headlong into it.

It all begins with The Aftermath, in which we “pick it up where we left off”. A pending catharsis couldn’t start anywhere else. This is an anti-breakup song in the sense that it isn’t the dissolution of a relationship Newski laments, but the optimistic yet inertia-less interim before moving on.

He gains his footing on Ride, which he describes as a “weirdos unite song for the underdog living on the fringe and operating outside the box". On it Newski opts to not play it safe—to make up for lost time in a finite chance at life by eschewing self-seriousness for the sake of experience and, in his words, “fully embracing dorking-out and having fun”. With that he hits the ground running on an album that plays like a roadtrip in gleeful celebration of uncoolness.



We ride shotgun with Newski as he cruises with the windows down and the radio up, chasing down a way to “live like he means it” (Can’t Get Enough), rolls through nights of somber yet optimistic introspection (Stars), rides on his momentum when loneliness picks another fight (Afternoons), and reminds himself to stay present and set down the Heavy Things and embrace the lack of control (Yesterday You Said Tomorrow)—all the while displaying his heart squarely on his sleeve and waving the lighthearted translucence of Tom Petty in the open air like a flag.

Newski has described Life Upside Down as somewhat of a 90s throwback album, and nowhere is that vibe more prominent, even in its title, than Sucker Punch. Opening with a “hey”-laden power-chord intro that paraphrases Nirvana closely enough to seem (maybe) intentional, its immediately subverted by the type of smokey-voiced, sing-talk verse that wouldn’t be out of place on an American Pie soundtrack or the post-Nevermind airwaves.

It isn’t always so copacetic though. As past ghosts re-emerge on the title-track, Newski finds himself nostalgic for the old aftermath, longing for the familiarity of solid ground; “I wish I could believe all these memories/but the past is heavy now”. It carries all of the honesty and torturous helplessness of The Gaslight Anthem at their most gut-wrenching, but also the awareness to know that the only counter-attack is to accept and be with it. The bottom has not fallen out, when he “wakes up, the smoke is gone”.

Although the album feels like a journey it never threatens to overstay its welcome, with the final track being its longest at only 3:14. After sharing such a range of moments with Newski, So Long places us where paths diverge—going out with a bang disguised as a whimper, the bittersweet sendoff of an old friend. It’s a lingering goodbye, a vow to someday once again pick it up where it is left off, but making sure to say everything that needs to be said, just in case. A perfect closing-of-the-proverbial-book, but also a tempting invitation to start it all over again, which is a thing you are going to want to do.

As he’s done throughout his prolific career, Newski crafts an un-unlikeable record that allows for immediate connection by distilling the infinite complexity of human emotion into effortless, timeless capsules. Through his heartfelt introspection and wide-open worldview, he offers proof that boundless perception and optimism is powerful enough to dispatch any anxiety and unworthiness that today’s world seems all-too-ready to deal out.

Life Upside Down will be officially released on September 7, and is available to pre-order HERE. I recommend a physical copy--the back-cover features "Brett Newski's Guide to Defeating Anxiety", wonderfully illustrated by the man himself. 

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