I Don’t Live Quietly

I hope that you appreciate the fact that I very seldom post more than one song from the same album at once, but this is rare case in which I think the songs — which segue into each other on the record — work too well together to be considered on their own.

Shannon McArdle “Leave Me For Dead”

Shannon McArdle “I Was Warned”

“Leave Me For Dead” and “I Was Warned” are essentially the same story told from different angles. In the former, McArdle is telling a recent ex on no uncertain terms “You can say that it’s over, but I’m not finished with you.” She seems a bit manic, and the music bears that out with a cocky groove and a saturated organ texture that seems a bit bold and rude. She’s flirty and pushy, and her attempt at a double-entendre in the last verse comes out sounding like clumsy pornography.

If “Leave Me For Dead” is acting out on drunken impulses, “I Was Warned” is the regretful, depressive hangover, complete with an odd scraping sound that simulates a distracting headache. The song hovers and drones as she dryly reiterates her ex’s critique of her behavior: “No one goes for that kind of talk…brash and balls out, an aversion to subtlety.” The song is lost in an emotional limbo, somewhere between her self-pitying side ceding his point, and wanting to tell him to fuck off for asking her to behave in a manner less threatening to men. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)