New Gospel

Advance Base

It’s interesting that Owen dissolved CFTPA and started ADVANCE BASE. It’s still him and his songs, written on keyboards. I assume it was getting away from that long name and starting a new chapter. Perhaps it marked a sense of getting older with more songs about adulthood. There is a beautiful kind of maturity to these ADVANCE BASE records which I really love and appreciate.

This one is another story song from A SHUT-IN’S PRAYER — a guy home drinking and watching game shows. The subtext is full of loneliness and dulled pain with some soul searching. But the sermonizing isn’t keeping the ghosts away. Perhaps there is something new coming along that will save him. A new gospel. I love the piano refrains, the clever lyrics and the doubled vocals. Incredible songwriting.

I could hear the TV playing
As I was coming up the stairs
Loud enough the dead could hear
You've been watching all your
Game shows
Trying to find a code
Like there's some trick
That they don't want you to know

You've been stashing all your empties
In the neighbor's bins
Like the landlord doesn't know
You're drinking
You've been sermonizing every day
Just to keep your ghosts away
It's a wonder that you find
So much to say

Oh
You need a new gospel
Because the bottom fell out
The old one long ago