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Archers of Loaf “Assassination on X-Mas Eve”

And here you are, the world’s most morbid Christmas song, even more so than “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” Aside from that odd siren-like harmonic effect on the guitar, my favorite thing about this song is the way Eric Bachmann’s lyrics put this tragedy in the context of the most mundane aspects of its aftermath. The dark humor – and also, the pathos – is in how Christmas is mostly ruined by those little things, and not so much the actual murder of the “hero.”

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Archers of Loaf “Slicks Tricks and Bright Lights”

Eric Bachmann’s voice changed a lot between All the Nations Airports and White Trash Heroes, and I felt very let down about that at the time. This is a funny thing, because it’s not as though he had a particularly nice voice to begin with, though there was something about his delivery that seemed to but an armor on his words. He’s a thousand times more vulnerable on the White Trash Heroes songs, to the point of sounding literally wounded as he sings “Slicks Tricks and Bright Lights.” This makes sense – it is, after all, a sad and epic tune about being betrayed by a false image and losing control of your life. I wonder if, on some unconscious level, he was singing about himself and his art. You know, the guy on stage and the songs no longer matching up with who he was, pushing him to move on.

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