if we try and become flowers! is the latest release, and first full-length album, from American Poetry Club, aka Jordan Weinstock—who you may know better as the person behind It Takes Time Records.
Like previous American Poetry Club releases, the album is a collection of lo-fi bedroom pop songs, what Weinstock describes as “a record about growing up, not giving in.” Take for example ‘you don’t have to vs. anyone’, with its Charlie Brown sample and lines about trips to the hospital and trying to focus on your own wellbeing.
“I am focusing on me
is that wrong please tell me”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1010845231 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2281222982]
‘sad song 7’ is another standout, with a fuller sound than many of the other tracks, the vocals strained and desperate. In comparison, ‘the world is full of friends and that’s so cool’ is something completely different, a sweet and upbeat track about the joys of friendship, Weinstock calling out his pals by name and ending on the super sincere lines “they’re best things that I’ve got / I love my friends a lot.”
There’s a nice simplicity to the lyrics on the album, with most of the lines sounding like they could be found scribbled in a pocket-sized notebook, or the margins of a letter. But that’s not to say they’re inconsequential. Instead it feels like Weinstock has distilled all his feelings into a few words, like he’s figured out exactly what it is he wants to say. Many of the songs are also cyclical, Weinstock repeating lines multiple times, even within songs that barely pass the minute mark. Perhaps the best example is ‘Lyrics mean nothing, feelings mean everything’, which seems to set out to prove its own title wrong. The single line is repeated like a mantra, a testament to the healing and restorative power of self-love and positive thinking, and serves as a great distillation of the themes of the album as a whole.
“And I deserve to feel good again”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1010845231 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=61140725]
You can get if we try and become flowers! from the American Poetry Club Bandcamp page.