I have been waiting for the new Max Tundra album, Parallax Error Beheads You, especially since it’s been six years since his previous full-length. It wasn’t easy to find, especially since the US version hasn’t been released yet, but I found it and love it, so now I’m sharing it with you.
The entire album is a manwich of a meal, but my favorite has to be the finale, “Until We Die.” It’s an epic stomper of a track, clocking in at just a hair over 11 minutes long. At times it sounds like an 80’s sitcom theme song on acid, or maybe an Alvin and the Chipmucks album flipped on 45rpm, but I can’t get enough of how effortlessly it flows from soft and restrained to over-the-top insane.
If you’re impatient or just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of sound, the lyrics are well worth a listen, and they kick in just after 2:45. I haven’t been able to find them anywhere else, so here’s my best guess:
Did you ever see the holy mountain on ice
30 tons of frogs and blood cascading like dice
The decoration painting was inhibited by fainting
And the clean up operation wasn’t niceSo you did some work for me and you didn’t get paid
Think of all the songs you sang and the love that you made
While Mr. Mend his kisses gate, and in my kitchen break a plate ???
And sweep it up and dream of getting laidI don’t know if you got my letter
But everyone thinks you’re great
If you come home it will be much better
And I will your mate until we dieIf you tried to do the cube and it doesn’t work out
Don’t peel the stickers off or move the pieces about
Just turn it in to this address, my underlings will do the rest
Unless you fill the envelope with doubtAs a child I used to be obsessed with pale saints
In a shop of art supplies, among the sale paints
I thought this girl was Maryam, and I asked if she’d tell me about barium.
That isn’t me she said with some restraintI don’t know if you got my letter
It should have arrived by now
When you come home it will be much better
I’m longing to show you how until we die
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I know it’s not the most accessible song around, but its charms are many, especially that impossibly high falsetto. If you’re willing to take the plunge I promise at least a smile and maybe even an extra bounce in your step; it’s impossible not to be swept up in its euphoria.