Art and music are so interconnected that we often take one or the other for granted. Each has a rich history of inspiring the other, and in the days when album cover art means hardly as much as it did in the age of the record, cassette tape, or even the CD, we easily forget how our some of our favorite songwriters can be inspired by their favorite painters. Once in a while, though, an album comes by that literally transfers brushstrokes and colors into digital bits of sound.
Come On, the new album by scaresthedaylights, pulls off this feat of music paying homage to painting. The third set of songs by singer-songwriter Neil Lipuma and friends Marc Cantone and Katie Ender was inspired the deeply moody, oppressive yet playful moods and tones of Sirens, the painting by Michael X. Rose. It features the mythological mermaid creatures hanging out on rocky shores, with dark heavy skies and torrid waves surrounding them. The mermaids themselves, though, are drawn almost like the most lighthearted of cartoons. You want to feel depressed looking at the painting, but the mermaids are so damn friendly, that you can’t help but smile.
That is exactly what feeling of listening to scaresthedaylights. The songs are similarly an extremely optimistic and cheery journey through melancholy. “Wronged and Gone,” the album opener, is a simple 90-minute-long chant that lets Lipuma and friends work out some early grievances and then settle into having some fun. “Hopeboat” and “Out of the City” are very catchy and hopeful, with just the right twinge of bittersweet. The bright pianos, cello, and the rockabilly-toned guitars and drums play against the hurt in Lipuma’s honest voice. It’s not all fun and games, though. “Wake Takes Us In” is easily the dark centerpiece of the album, full of oppressive and ominous cello, electric guitar, and synthesizers that are the purest expression of the interplay between hope and depression. It’s a perfect album for looking out the window on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Go enjoy it for yourself at: http://scaresthedaylights.com
