Review Summary: So are your parents proud, you've left a door open to-night
First of all, what is a zen sucker even? Let's get that out of the way first. On their website the Danish front man Torsten Larsen explains:
"A zen sucker, as we understand it, is a kind of mental vampire, who sucks all goodwill and positive energy out of you and leaves you rattling and without the strengh to carry out anything but the most basic movements"
What makes this an even better release (as if the caption above didn't capture and captivate you, right?) is that it is actually free. They put it on their website for people to download. You're probably thinking: so they are amateurs who are desperate for attention, right? That is not the case. Actually, these guys were just so frustrated with the danish music industry (in particular), that they eventually gave up their hopes of breaking on through to the other side. They don't lack anything musically, their problem is that on the face of it, their music just too damn stark and bleak to gain a massive following, especially in such a small country as Denmark. If you were to put a gun to my head and ask me: What band do they sound like, well what would I answer? That is how most people relate to music these days. Similarity is a big deal. What other band do they sound like, dude? Dude, they totally sound like Radiohead, you should really check them out, man. Well, they kinda do, both because of their jazzy sound and their introspective lyrics. Following this wonderful album, they made another great one in 2011 (Dolly) and then disbanded.
It becomes apparent from the get-go that this is no happy-go-lucky record, as ten seconds of mute goes by and then a pure 1-minute chorus-song kicks in. It does so with the lyrics repeated several times: "selling yourself by the ounce, selling yourself by the ounce".
There is a very good reason as to why this song needs to have such a light sound, almost a calypso-summer quality to it. If it didn't, it would simply be too dark and horrible for someone to listen to again and again (someone who doesn't feel like driving a knife through their arms at least). The same goes for some of the darkest lyrical content on this album, they are all wrapped in a nice cashmere jangle that wins you over every time. That is what is so interesting about this record; the darkness walks hand in hand with the light, so that when he sings (almost berninger-esque): "i took a dive into a mirror", (in Dancing Bear) it sounds almost tempting, like there is a better world behind the drunken reflection of everything in the shape of "(I saw) a dancing bear", though that is usually an image associated with animal cruelty. In the next song, Widowers, something similar happens when he sings: "murderers, murderers, you will burn in hell". It doesn't sound like a threat, but more like a little delightful fact he takes pride in, a kind of personal revenge after a spiteful relationship, but oh so lovely, that it makes you want to sing along. Just as the opener does.
This continues on Vietnamese Pool Boy, but it is like his voice has suddenly morphed into a more rough and manly sound. Like he has just crashed and thrashed a bar, because someone has stolen his little blue-eyed lovergirl. He is yelling into his poor microphone: "I wanna know where charlie is hiding - you know where charlie is hiding, you know where charlie is hiding" so many times that in the end you wanna call him up and apologize and confess to everything (he will find you eventually, anyways). But that is only a nice change of pace on the whole "i am lost, now i have nothing; i can hear the wolves howling" lyrical theme he has going on in the first half of this album. The People Person is a Zen Sucker is where the gold is buried and shows what this album is all about.
"another door is shut, a lifetime lived and forgotten
it's not without reason you're cold, you wanna do your thing
show everybody you're a people person
but that's not how I see you at all"
It is both a love declaration and a hopelessness blues. It is a song about losing faith in people and to be without a guiding light in a dark (inner) world. What force is there to guide us if there is no light, after all. But that question is not answered, but is left soaring somewhere between the lines. There is a little zen sucker in all of us, to be sure. And if go on like this I will turn into one myself.
It is music made to be heard at night, it is made not to be forgotten, but remembered, not with the crazy joy that is reserved to your absolute favorite albums, but with the sort of eerie reminder that the sun is slowly fading and the darkness will eventually win. That all sounds like this record is in fact a Zen Sucker itself. Which it is.
Enjoy.
