This morning I was later than I wanted to the initial stop, but after a minute I settled into the subway car. Heading to the school where I volunteer at with the Big Brother Big Sister program, I let The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die’s Whenever, If Ever be my morning guide. From here on out I’ll just say TWIABP because really, Akon’s full name has less words in it. I’ve heard people praising this band for a while not, and after listening to Whenever, If Ever…I can see where those people are coming from. Musically the band is as stimulating as The Office in syndication, but I wasn’t connecting to anything else.
Okay, that’s not true, there was one line that hit me, “…posters in your bedroom…” from “Picture of a Tree That Doesn’t Look Okay.” For over a decade my bedroom walls were plastered with posters ranging from my Backstreet Boy obsessed days to college when I had Zac Efron. I realize now that I had no growth. But yes, that was the only song that had anything I could attach myself to in the long run. Other than that, it was strictly a musical relationship. This is a weird one for me since I’m a words gal. I gravitated rhythmically to “Layers of Skin We Drag Around” and loved the way the acceleration of “Ultimate Steve” matched the subways as we took off from one station to the next. If I had to choose a “you gotta listen to this one bro” track, it’d have to be “Fightboat.” Comparing it to the rest, you’d say this was the lightest on Whenever, If Ever.
My subway ride ended way before my time with TWIABP’s Whenever, If Ever. So as I sit here with Wendy Williams interviewing Bret Michaels in the background, I leave my final thoughts on this album, it was okay. I personally wasn’t a fan, but if you dig bands like Dads and Dikembe, then go for it and check out Whenever, If Ever, out June 18th on Topshelf Records.
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