Athmoss – “Father”

Athmoss – “Father” – Single Review

I’m pretty much hopping on one foot with excitement; do you realize that Athmoss is coming to our pages genuinely from the infamous Transylvania in Romania? I mean…he’s sending this from Frankfurt, Germany where he’s been living with his wife and daughters since 2013…but originally….ORIGINALLY, he’s come from Transylvania. I’m sure Frankfurt is just as cool in everything but name by comparison.

Anyhow…I wouldn’t be doing my job if I just simply ranted about locations and not the music itself. Athmoss has put together a brand-new easy-listening track with his new single “Father.” Easy-listening is a tough thing to review…that’s about as far on the outside of my personal taste as I can go; but like all things, I believe there is absolutely something to like about everything. So let’s see what resonates here with me in this new song, “Father,” from Athmoss.

I’ll say this; after heavily digesting the lyrics over and over upon several listens, I can only come to the conclusion that indeed, Athmoss and I have had significantly different upbringings. Many of my issues and struggles with family have all been well documented here; but in contrast here we have a true-ode to one’s maker here really, as Athmoss pays tribute to his father through song here. I thought perhaps it could be a religious thing as well…like the whole father and the spirit and the etc. etc. thing. But after several listens I can really only conclude that this song is actually born out of real experiences Athmoss has had within his own family.

Musically, it’s…..well…..it’s easy-listening right? I’ll put it to you this way; when you sleep about 3-4 hours maximum at a stretch, and have been doing that for about 3-4 years straight…sometimes when you wake up you need both a little bit of coffee, and perhaps a lot of energy, to start up this new day. In today’s case….heading into a soft-sound like this first thing once my eyes are open threatens to send back to the sandman. It’s well-played; but here on our Canadian continent you’d recognize these sounds to be absent from our present day and know them to be familiar in our early-mid 1980’s, or the current sounds you might find in your dentist’s office or elevator ride.

Guitar-wise, I’m kind of excited to hear what else might be in the Athmoss catalogue. After about two minutes of this heartfelt & emotional tribute of a song, Athmoss lights up the guitar and inserts a pulse into this track to rise it up above a complete flat-line with an excellent guitar solo. Definitely shows a lot of skill right there for sure, and in general really – I can’t take away that he’s written completely to his objective here.

I wrote a speech once….a long time ago. I wrote a few really, but the one in question was from a long time ago during the speech competitions one gets into during high-school…and I was on the verge of heading into the finals. I wrote myself a speech based upon my handicapped brother, Mathew, and his daily struggles as well as his ongoing battle with epilepsy. After I delivered the speech to much applause and great comments from my classmates, it was only moments after that I eventually found myself in the teacher’s office and being viciously attacked for my speech-writing by my English teacher.

I’ll never forget his entire first questions about it all: “Did you write that for YOU or for US?”

Up until that point, I’ll admit, I hadn’t really considered it. After I was forced to think about it, I fully admitted, “I wrote that for me.” And my teacher then promptly nodded, and showed me the door. I had forgotten my audience it seemed…I had asked them all to come with me into a personal venture rather than take them into one through the writing. If that makes any sense…

And that feeling…is presumably what the effect of listening to “Father” can be like for someone on the outside of the relationship. It almost feels less like a comfortable insight as it does feel like you’re sitting in on the family dinner, or the family counselling appointment. As much as it can be personal…it can also feel somewhat uncomfortably invasive. I feel like, when I listen to Athmoss on “Father” here, that if I was to ask him, that same question once asked of me and my own writing….that he’d have no choice at all but to answer the same way I did. This track wasn’t written for you – this is a song written for Athmoss himself.

It’s difficult to relate to the lyrics, not only for their content, but for their delivery. You might have a much better shot at relating to the lyrics of a song like “Father,” than I will; but I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a little tough when they come across this personally. If there was any mistake that I personally made back in the speech-writing scenario, it was that I didn’t add or bring any personal relevance or relation into my writing for anyone else to grasp onto but myself. So too might be the case here with Athmoss; this might be such an internalized song based on personal experience, it might miss the intended emotional target as it can be tough to feel something that is never there. While most of the people out there might love their father…I’m not all that sure that we all love Athmoss’ “Father.” Though I’m sure he’s a genuinely nice guy from everything I’ve heard here on this song, it truly is written in such an unambiguous way that it’s nearly impossible to gain what might be your own meaning or interpretation out of such a pointed & personal song.

Like I said – it’s well-made & well-played. The performance of Athmoss is truly fine with nothing I can hear that I feel like needs to be changed. That’s right – nothing at all.

I should have mentioned…when I left my teacher’s office that day, after having admitted that my speech was written so personally that no one else could get inside of it…the first thing I thought to myself was something along the lines of “damn straight I did.”

And I wouldn’t want Athmoss to change himself, his song or his style based around a single comment here from this guy whose ears quite often reside outside of the easy-listening state. Nope – I wouldn’t advise him of that whatsoever.

In fact, I’d do the opposite. I believe that some songs, some speeches, some lyrics….they need to be written. Some only to serve the fact that if we don’t get the ‘whatever-it-might-be’ written out of us, that we’ll never be able to reach or write about anything else. Some songs need to be written; and perhaps in the discussion of the music & career of Athmoss, this might be one of those exact songs.

In the case of the “Father” in question; what an honor it would be to have a son like this write a song about you – that must be one incredibly proud dad!

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