The End of the World by Adam and the Plants
“…an end to one version of my life…so I could start another”
Back in August I was recommended an album called The End of The World by Adam and the Plants. Admittedly, it has taken me a while to write this review, but I have been listening to the album a lot lately again and I just had to do this write up to share it with you all.
Adam Copeland is a musician based out of Jersey City, New Jersey. For about a decade he has been a principal contributor to argueably some of the area’s best and most intelligent guitar rock bands. Bands like Black Water, The Meltdowns and Kids With Guns, but with Adam and the Plants this album is wholly his own. His songs, his words, his music and his arrangements. Adam put a lot of pressure on himself to really make this album meet his vision of quality and sound. Holed up in a damp warehouse in Passaic he and some others (Shawn Fichtner & Lloyd L. Naideck on drums, Gary Laurie on guitar, Henry Prol on bass & vocals and Scott N. Kith on guitar and vocals as well) have crafted this wonderful album.
I emailed Adam and asked him some questions about his influences and the origins of the album. With regards to influences and how this album came to be, he responded by saying that,
“It’s difficult to talk about influences without going overboard but to start I was raised on the Beatles and Heavy Metal by my mother and sister respectively. I spent about a decade thinking I was making sort of confrontational punk music in various bands, even though the guys I was playing with were more into Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa than anything else. These bands kept getting broken up on account of people leaving New Jersey, so I wrote all of the material on The End Of The World by myself in a damp room in a warehouse in Passaic.”
Adam also mentioned that at the time he felt like he was channeling a folk or singer/songwriter element, but ultimately what he really wanted to do was put a real band together around the songs he was working on. He mentioned how he was listening to groups like Big Star, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Sharon Van Etten, The Wrens, and was working on the notion that it was a decent idea to center a group around himself instead of trying to organize a democratic committee like he had done in the past.
With regards to the album itself and it’s theme, if you will, Adam mentioned that,
“The record didn’t have a central theme that was planned from the beginning but one began to take shape as I was writing and recording it. “The End of the World” was sort of a joke I would use as stage banter when I was playing some of this material out by myself, but it has some truth to it. All of these songs were written in an attempt to I guess compartmentalize a piece of my past in order to be able to move past it. In certain cases that meant taking part in some of the blame, and in others it was just catharsis. So, in a sense, the end of one world and the start of another.”
When you hear this album and the lyrics in the songs you can really get a sense of what Adam is talking about. The song Dedicated, for example, really evokes feelings of lamentation and sorrow to me. Whereas a song like Texas has this sense of change and moving on to it. For me, the standout on the album is Wormwood Star. The song has some really excellent distorted, driving guitars while Adam’s voice soars through the song as it just sinks it’s hooks into you as it builds to this beautifully bombastic conclusion.
Expanding on the album a bit more, with regards to the lyrics, there is an interview Adam did with nj.com where he was quoted in saying,
“I was finally confronting bad personal shit that I thought had happened to me. As it turns out, there’s two sides to everything, and I had to come to terms with the idea that I was culpable for stuff, too. The record was very therapeutic in that regard. It helped me put an end to one version of my life – one “world” – so I could start another. I know there’s other people out there who are my age or about who either have to deal with loss or are looking back on their 20s and early 30s and thinking, “That’s it?” There’s themes in there that people can actually connect with.”
I really love it when artists bear their soul like this in hopes of not only working through their own issues, but in hoping to help others with their issues. So that others might connect with this music and find comfort or strength to handle their own issues. I admire this greatly.
The album is currently available over at his Bandcamp page and he is giving the digital copy away for free, yes for FREE. If you want a copy on CD it’s selling for just $5. Do yourself a favor and head over and check this one out.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdamAndThePlants/?fref=nf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamplants
BandCamp: https://adamandtheplants.bandcamp.com
The End of the World by Adam and the Plants