CD Odyssey Disc 1193: Nap Eyes

I’m currently growing my beard out to augment a Hallowe’en costume and it is itching like crazy. Who knows, though – maybe in a week it will feel great. For now I just want the damned thing off my face.

I expect this next band has many fans with beards.

Disc 1193 is… Thought Rock Fish Scale

Artist: Nap Eyes

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover? A three-headed man plays the trumpet, while pouring wine near (but not into) some amphora. This goes to show that even if you have three heads you should be careful about trying to do too many things at once. This is particularly true if you happen to only have one arm, as appears to be the case here.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review for their 2018 release “I’m Bad Now” and checked them out. I liked them a lot and bought both that album and this one. I’m still on the hunt for their first album, “Whine of the Mystic”.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Nap Eyes albums, as you would surely know if you’ve been reading carefully and not just skimming through these categories after a perfunctory guffaw at the “what’s up with the cover?” segment. Anyway, of those two, I put “Thought Rock Fish Scale” in first!

Ratings: 4 stars

For Halifax rock band Nap Eyes, their second album “Thought Rock Fish Scale” is a hidden but brilliant gem that deserves far more attention than it ever received. Listening to it you sense that the band knew this was the likely outcome, and OK with that…mostly. Basically, they think about it a lot.

This record is comfort food for the soul, but only for brave and inquisitive souls. If you are looking for easy answers in your music and lyrics you should look elsewhere.

The arrangements are relaxed and laid back, with echoing guitar and a relaxed surfer feel that feels meditative and safe. However, buried in these gentle rolling guitar musings are songs that speak with deep uncertainty.

On “Mixer” lead singer and lyricist Nigel Chapman perfectly captures the awkward feeling of the cocktail party. Whether these are Chamber of Commerce mixers or art gallery openings is usually immaterial; they have the same feeling of disconnectedness. Everyone circles the room, stirring their drinks, promising to meet for lunch and generally being mindful of being on their best behavior.

“Mixer” sets the stage for the whole album, exploring the various ways people hold off the awkwardness of it all. Booze, meditation or just a lingering ennui all play their part on the record.

“Stargazer” has one of the catchiest little guitar picking segments I’ve heard. It is deceptively simple, just walking around inside the chord but it has an echo and jump that drives each bar into the next in a never-ending round. The effect settles into your head like a mantra. On top of it, Chapman sings of his uncertainty and doubt. I love this line in particular, which seems to speak to the road less travelled:

“I have seen people go by me with such
Determination that it's sick
I'd like to go the places they don't know how to get to
But I can't remember the trick
So I wait around and venomously crown myself
Serpent king of my sins
But if I go down I'm not taking you with me
It's only myself in the end.”

This is a brilliant bit of self-exploration. Envious of other’s success, even as he wants to achieve his own in some different way he can’t seem to put his finger on. And while Chapman acknowledges his own venom, he is quick to remind himself not to pull anyone down with him.

The almost deadpan delivery on “Lion in Chains” has a Lou Reed like quality, mixed with a slow and steady surfer vibe on the guitar. This is another song filled with existential dread. Are you where you are supposed to be? Are you on a path to get there? Or you at the mercy of some force greater than any single choice you can make? Chapman sums it up with:

“When I think thoughts about my hometown
I sometimes feel like I'll never get out of here
I feel a warm breath and a deadly uncaring power at the back of my neck
And I wonder what it is that keeps me here.”

It would be easy for this stuff to come off pathetic and whiney, but it never does. Nap Eyes do a great job of settling down into a groove and honestly exploring Big Questions without ever seeming like they are complaining. They are just musing, and bringing you along for the ride.

This culminates on the end of Side One with “Don’t Be Right” a song that observes that often when we feel most right or vindicated about our position, it is also the time we are at our most miserable. It is lonely up there on Righteous Mountain.

Best tracks: Mixer, Stargazer, Lion In Chains, Don’t Be Right, Click Clack