American Humor: Currency
Currency is the first full-length album from the Salt Lake City-based alt-rock group, American Humor. The album pulls influence in both grunge and garage rock genres giving it an energetic and raw nature. Most of the tracks are driven by high energy and eccentric rhythms contrasted by darker lyrics touching on the distraught and turmoil of the human mind.
The album starts off with the melancholic lyrics and high energy of “Black”. In its essence, it’s a simple song, repeating the verse “My heart is black and so are my thoughts,” over and over with only a handful of bridges to break the verbose. The repetition is really the appeal here-- it’s so simple and straightforward yet, despite the dark lyrics, the high energy drive of the instruments makes it a fun listen.
The highlight and emotional high point of this album comes with the track “Icarus”. “You know I built the labyrinth, only to find out that it's one hell of a maze. I will get out of here someday.” The song’s namesake is the story of “Icarus”, in which a father and his son Icarus try to escape their own labyrinth on wings made of feathers and wax, but will die if they fly too close to the sun. The song picks up at the end of the ancient story with Icarus dead after crash landing onto a stairwell, lying on a bed of broken feathers: “sleeping on an empty stairwell, gluing feathers on these broken angel wings.” The song does well in mixing the idea of the labyrinth and the story of Icarus together, and while asking the question to their audience, ‘How will I ever get out of my own labyrinth’. They propose one answer in the verse, “ I will take you with me, out with simplicity. Do or die is the only way.” In the pursuit of freedom of our own labyrinth, is the only solution death? Perhaps they’re saying death is the obvious answer, but maybe not the only one.
One theme that remains consistent throughout the album is the opposition to certain facets of religion. This may just be a product of living as a non-member in Utah alongside the LDS church, but it’s hard not to notice with songs like “Church & State” and “Black”. In “Church & State”, the majority of the song is taken up by the verse “We will try to separate/ Church and State”, while “Black” features verses like, “burn down the chapel of your false religion”. Both of these songs include intense driving rock and fast lyrics, which highlight the intense feelings of discord that exists between the church and non-members.
Currency finds its place between a balance of driving rock n’ roll and the melancholy of its lyrics. The energy and passion of the group can be felt wholeheartedly through their music and it’s a shame that they aren’t able to share that in person with live shows still on hold.
In the meantime, you can stream American Humor on Spotify and Youtube, or find them goofing off and performing live sessions on Instagram.
