Popular with the Unpopular - (2023)
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On January 2nd, 2023, a sudden, unstoppable wave of inspiration took hold. What began as a spontaneous writing session rapidly evolved into Popular with the Unpopular—a bold, genre-bending 14-track record that bridges over three decades of personal songwriting. Rather than looking solely forward, the album acts as a creative excavation, seamlessly weaving seven brand-new compositions with seven deeply personal, never-before-heard treasures handpicked from the artist's private musical vault dating back to 1990.
Popular with the Unpopular is an anthem for the outsiders, the dreamers, the weary, and the restless. It captures the heavy, beautiful, and sometimes absurd contradictions of the human experience—combining dark, existential dread with tongue-in-cheek humor and raw rock-and-roll swagger.
The album’s magic lies in how effortlessly its timeline blurs, proving that great songwriting is timeless:
The Golden Vault (1990–2013): The soul of the past breathes heavily through tracks like "Elysian Fields" and "Love Won't Disappear" (both originally penned between 1990 and 1992), offering lush, hauntingly romantic reflections on mortality and devotion. From the early 2000s comes the hypnotic, sensory escape of "Swim in My Water," the dark, seductive groove of "Dance of the Witch," and the bitter, brilliant industry-critique of "Limousine." Rounding out the vault are 2013’s "Benevolent"—a biting, skeptical confrontation of institutionalized faith—and "You Can't Get the Bar Out of Me," a whiskey-soaked, steel-guitar-infused tribute to the melancholic comfort of neon lights and beer-stained dance floors.
The Modern Era (2023): Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with these classics are seven brand-new tracks. The record's anchor, "Alien," took a painstaking seven months to perfect, capturing a heavy, isolated sci-fi vulnerability. This is balanced by the touching acoustic wisdom of "Make Your Mama Proud," the grief-stricken tribute of "Wish," and the pure, playful, high-decibel comedy of "Too Fast, Too Loud, Too Old"—a track about the timeless art of annoying your neighbors with rock and roll.
As the album reaches its final movement, the tone shifts into a striking, cinematic warning. The cold, mechanical rise of "A.I." delivers a spine-chilling, electronic monologue about humanity's loss of control to its own creations. This flows directly into the towering, apocalyptic grand finale, "Watching the End." A devastatingly honest critique of modern-day crises, media saturation, and political decay, the track leaves listeners staring at their screens, forcing them to feel something as the world spins through the dark.
By marrying the raw, hungry energy of thirty-year-old songs with the seasoned, cynical, and sharp perspective of the present day, Popular with the Unpopular is more than just an album. It is a living, breathing timeline of an artist’s soul—an eclectic, powerful, and deeply rewarding listen for anyone who has ever felt a little out of place in this world.