You probably know Shari Heck for her work as Cyberbully Mom Club, a band which recently announced they are on indefinite hiatus. But, don’t fret too much, because Heck has announced a new solo project called ÒOR, as well as the project’s self-titled début album. It’s out now, and fans of CBMC will be pleased to know that everything they loved about the project is still present.
Opener ‘peach to a peach’ talks about meeting James Oglethorpe, who Wikipedia reliably informs me was a British MP and founder of the colony of Georgia, and who Heck reliably informs me is probably a “fucking dork”. Then we get ‘waves’, a simple acoustic song about long hot summers and ‘Mikey’, which is all lazy little needly guitars. ‘For luck’ is a song about moving on from something or someone (“I know you’re right but I can’t forget her”), complete with echoey vocal effects reminiscent of Snow Mantled Love. ‘song for ari’ is a sweet song about watching a little relative grow up, “when my baby falls, she gets right back up / sun brings out her freckles, i stick ’em in my cup / doesn’t shed a tear when she falls, whispers ‘i love you too’ over phone calls”. ‘everyone I love’, which sounds like indie rock slowed to folk pace, with acoustic guitar and bursts of slapped drums and some really nice lyrics:
“i don’t believe in god but i still pray when i’m afraid
feels like i’m using him, or using faith, or something
anyway, i don’t write poems but i wrote one in my sleep and it goes,
‘everyone i love in walking distance from my home’
that’s what i pray for when i start to feel all alone”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=260351101 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2752630395]
‘Feels nice (a little more than alright)’ is a perfect bedroom love song, with very sweet lyrics (“go outside and look up at the sky, it looks right but I can’t see the stars at night so I think of the light in your eyes”), which then segues into a song about piling up cans (more on which in a little while). ‘what can be taken’ has slow and lolling electric guitars and vocals which appear and cut abruptly, giving the track a slightly surreal, fractured feeling. The lyrics address the postmodern paradox of love, the fear and pain of never having versus the fear and pain of losing, and eventually settles on the compromise of loving the people you do as much as you can for as long as possible:
“you can’t enjoy it, you’re always scared of losing it
what can be taken, the good that we clutch all more tight,
what can be taken
is always the good, warmer nights by your side
i’ll keep my love on my breath till i die”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3163237672 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2332078881]
‘The sit down, stay down’ reads like manic flowing poetry of the anxious (“every thought is a yearning when i sit down, i can’t stay / i get mad when i calm down, need a habit every day”), while ‘pile cans up to pass time’ is mostly gently picked guitars, and simple lyrics. The song has a cyclical nature, guitar line and lyrics circling around and repeating, perhaps as a symbol of things being stuck at a certain point, doomed to repeat until something dramatic breaks the pattern. The album then ends on the short and surreal ‘secret’, which has a wobbly, almost creepy sci-fi vibe and fuzzy vocals repeating the line, “we’ve got a secret they’re never gonna find out”.
Softer and dreamier than previous CBMC stuff, the album is perfect to drift away in and allow the lyrics to take your mind places and feel things. ÒOR is out now on the CBMC bandcamp page.