scapp70's Full Review: The Burdens of Being Upright by Tracy Bonham
The Burdens of Being Upright and other albums from female fronted bands were my alternative to Alternative in the mid 1990s. The Nirvana bandwagon that started in the early 1990s lasted almost the whole rest of the decade. All rock music was pretty much labeled as Alternative, and the bands all had to have a singer that sounded like Eddie Vedder, and the guitars had to tune their low E string to D. It gives it that slow menacing tone, and obviously it worked. Many fans were planted and relished in the endless ocean of copycat music that swarmed MTV and the rock radio airwaves.
For me, there was very little I took away from the now defunct Alternative Rock movement. Sure, Pearl Jam's Ten was amazing, a couple of songs from Soundgarden's music too should of been listened to and it was.
What if you didn't get the copycat music? What if you're like me, and you just couldn't catch the Alternative wave of music? Luckily, in the 90s there were plenty of bands that made great music. To name a few, there was Belly, Juliana Hatfield, No Doubt, Veruca Salt, The Cranberries, Alanis Morissette and of course the very talented Tracy Bonham.
In 1996, Ms. Bonham released her debut titled The Burdens of Being Upright. A 35-minute CD filled with more power chords and beautiful melodies that it should satisfy anyone's appetite for pure rock music. Is it grunge? I would have to say, sure there are some moments of grunge here. The opening of You're The One sounds a lot like Smells Like Teen Spirit. This song, like the others, has lyrics that are not always so clear.
♫You're the one, you're the one
That froze the sun
Say you love me, as you pull the trigger
Better today, rather than tomorrow♫
I mean we could comprehend and create an image of what she's saying, but it seems that there must be a deeper meaning behind the words she's singing. Tracy plays the violin on this CD sometimes, and here is one song that she uses it with great effect. During the verse sung with a drumbeat in half time, Tracy plays this haunting counter melody on the violin, it sends chills through me whenever I hear it.
Mother Mother was the video from this CD. This is the song that kicks off the CD, and it sets the tone of what you can expect from the rest of the album, pure loud raunchy melodic music with great lyrics. The song is one of the best on the album, it's so loud and heavy, and powerful especially the chorus. My interpretation of the lyrics is that a woman is newly on her own and moved out of her parent's house. Her mother is not pleased to hear that everything is going OK for her, and she rather hear that her daughter is miserable without her. I have others who read the same lyrics and think it means the opposite, that the young woman is actually miserable, yet she tells her mother that she is fine when she’s not.
♫I’m hungry, I'm dirty
I’m losing my mind
Everything’s fine!!♫
After reading some info on Tracy, I find out that I was wrong. That info can be found here:
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsB/bonham_tracy.html
Navy Bean is a song that I don’t know what the lyrics are talking about, but the lyrics do clearly read:
♫Navy Bean is bigger than it seems
Put it on, don’t ask what it means♫
After some web browsing, I discovered that the lyrics are about a personal relationship she had. The Navy Bean is actually a g-string pair of panties.
This version on the album is fast and loud, when compared to her live version on her The One single, the live version does not stand up at all. She has no one singing backing vocals and there seems to be a void because of it. One of the studio version's allures is the amazing backing vocals, amongst other things.
In Tell It To The Sky, Tracy performs it almost like a grunge power ballad. She does her best Veruca Salt impression wit her amazing backing vocals.
The song Kisses has lyrics that are not easily comprehendible. The verses do not seem to talk about what the chorus does. My wife says it makes perfect sense, maybe you have to be female to understand where Tracy is coming from. The song sounds more like a demo when compared to the rest of the CD. The song just has Tracy on guitar and vocals. The song is soft like the kisses that she gives.
Even shorter than Kisses is Brain Crack. A song that lasts only a touch over a minute. There is mainly only one lyric sung over and over.
♫That's the sound of your brain cracking♫
There is the sound of very high-pitched violin in the background that contrasts against the soft strum of an acoustic guitar, maybe that's the sound she's talking about.
I would guess my favorite is a toss up between Mother, Mother and The One. They are both so powerful and emotional, yet musically I guess I lean toward The One. It's such a song of perfection, each part is more fun to hum along than the last. The lyrics again are a cryptic mystery, but by the time this song rolls around, you're already used to the idea. The verses are very quiet and slow with Tracy's violin crying in the shadows, yet when we come to the chorus and the bridge, the bathroom tiles are vibrating off the walls. Tracy outdoes herself composing these melodies in this song, and again such energy and emotion omit from the song's pores effortlessly.
Is there filler on this album? You bet there is, but it's not awful filler. Songs like The Real, 30 Seconds, Every Breath and Sharks Can't Sleep cannot touch the creativity level Tracy showcases on the great songs; Mother Mother, Navy Bean, The One, Bulldog, Tell It To The Sky or even Brain Crack, but they're not awful either. These songs are good actually, but when compared to the good half, the fun level drops dramatically. Well, we could look at it this way, it just shows how great the great songs are when compared to these good songs.
The Great outweighs the good, so I give this CD: 4 stars
The Songs:
1. Mother Mother
2. Navy Bean
3. Tell It To The Sky
4. Kisses
5. Brain Crack
6. One, The
7. One Hit Wonder
8. Sharks Can't Sleep
9. Bulldog
10. Every Breath
11. 30 Seconds
12. The Real
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