Mikey Joseph O'Connor - The Love is Letting Go of Fear EP

Back again and on a prolific streak of songwriting, friend of the blog and It's A Thing! co-host Mikey Joseph O'Connor brings us a softer, gentler, happier, and even more honest set of song with The Love is Letting Go of Fear EP. What's different from The Day I Stopped All This? I mean, what could Mikey have possibly done to top the earnest, honest, tragic last love letter of last Autumn's EP? You probably think I'm building this up too much. You're probably right. At least in a sense. The answer to the question, the what's different question, is everything. On Love is Letting Go, O'Connor isn't merely working on letting go of fear, as the title might suggest. He's not even in the throws of a clear philosophical conundrum. See that wayside over there? Yeah, that one? Well, that's where all of Mikey's anger and frustration and disappointment seems to have fallen. The anguish inherent to The Day I Stopped All This is no more, and this new EP is very different kind of love letter.

This love letter is about amends, first. "Dear Aaron and Sarah... Sorry" is a brilliantly open-hearted, fully culpable and responsible song. It's a song that apologizes with its title, and clarifies that apology with its lyrics, its music and its frankness. It's a song about abuses. (And there's some continuing distinct Replacements vibe in there.) And having learned to transcend them. This is also a love letter about falling in love. "Earthquake Weather" is that song. O'Connor croons over a jaunty guitar, piano and bass composition about finding true love and remarking on the insignificant moments, the little ones, that become so huge when romance is attached. Love is restorative here. In a very prevent-the-city-from-shaking-apart way. Here's a video of it. LIVE!


Mikey Joseph O'Connor - Earthquake Weather from Mikey Joseph O'Connor on Vimeo.

It's a love letter crying, "It's us against the WORLD and all the evils therein." The darker "The Lions Den" is a song about breaking apart, but not because of the internal, human conflicts that come with love cast asunder by its parts. Instead, it's a song about an outside force, something bigger and darker and more indomitable, that seems ready to swallow both the song's protagonist and his subject of rescue. It's also one of the most brilliantly composed songs O'Connor has ever created. And it's a love letter about pure joy and thanks. "The One Good Thing" closes the set with an incredibly open and vulnerable character study. It opens with the stellar, inspiring lines, "My dreams go bad because I still can't trust myself/ And my dreams come back because of my mental health." It's a fucking incredible track too, with a solid piano riff, a ripping guitar solo, and a gorgeous refrain "You're given to me like a song that's on the radio."

In short, and in long, The Love is Letting Go of Fear EP is spectacular. Listen to it. You can check it out exclusively through Mikey's ReverbNation page.

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Mikey Joseph O'Connor - The Day I Stopped All This EP

Friend of Gas Lantern Media, leader of The Most Awesome Protagonist and co-host of It's A Thing! podcast, Mikey Joseph O'Connor [or MJO'C as I like to call him (rather, I've never called him that, but what the hell, I'm gonna try to start a thing and abbreviations {or abbreves} are totes in right now)] is not merely a proponent of the Ska'd for Life movement. He's also a talented singer-songwriter who generates tunes reminiscent of the sad-times Shins, The Replacements and with The Day I Stopped All This EP, a bit of almost-dub-steppy, Bon Iver-ian lamentative reflection. But beyond all the direct, sincere and vulnerable lyrics, O'Connor creates elaborate sonic tapestries that venture from subtle, folk rock beats to downright church-choral-style lovelorn-ness. Above all else this is a break-up album, and if I were to sum its sincerity and emotionalism into one word, that word would be Pinkerton. The Day I Stopped All This is fragile and angry, frustrated and nostalgic, heartfelt and seething, but it's also a sort of love letter to a bygone era. Or, failing that, a final, resigned, but sturdy, goodbye.

The EP opens with "(Not All) Pretty Blonde Girls are the God Damn Devil." It's a track that demonstrates mostly strongly, perhaps, O'Connor's signature scratchy, nearly-Westerberg-ian wail. That wail is what gives this song the extra dose of character that makes it so strong. Sung by a more "traditional" vocalist, the direct, clear, concise and vulnerable lyrics may have sounded twee or whiny, but here, O'Connor's voice feels as torn up as the lyrics would have you believe. Plus, the chorus and refrain, backed by graceful harmonies and some subtle drums, flesh out a song that could have easily been left spare and hollow. The result is that catchiness that runs through your head, and this writer's head. On "The Winter River Bridge" O'Connor paints an elaborate picture of not merely losing someone, but losing time and place in the process. And the chorus, oh em gee, the chorus, so thick with guitar, fuzz, and some vocal clouding effects, feels as catchy as that from "(Not All) Pretty Blonde..."

From that darker place, though, things pick up a bit on "The Best Last Day," a lively goodbye note or "thank you" with syncopated, jangling guitar and a chorus of backing "Oohs." It's a mature piece, really, that while still as dark as the preceding two tracks, is also something of an olive branch. It is the musical equivalent of seeing an ex months or years later, having reflected, and saying "It was fun while it lasted," while fighting the urge to hold up your middle finger. And the closer "Someone Smiling/Someone Shining" is one part Gilbert O'Sullivan, one part Leonard Cohen and one part, well... just Mikey Joseph O'Connor. It is a full, lush, pastoral track that feels like an old Polaroid of the girl you loved once, but can't any longer. The piano/keyboard work and wall-of-voices vocal complete the picture. It feels, if I may create a semi-hackneyed image from a film, like that one final look upon an old lover's photo prior to letting the wind carry it away into the ocean.

You can hear The Day I Stopped All This EP at Mikey Joseph O'Connor's reverbnation page here. Or just give it a listen here, via the streaming player below. And of course, listen to It's A Thing! and visit their website to keep up on all that world-hopping madness.

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