Everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Dolly Parton has bemoaned “barely getting by,” the working-class nightmare that inhibits the American dream.
But for whatever reason, dreams don’t always come true. And maybe they weren’t the right dreams in the first place.
Brooklyn band X Ambassadors dedicates its new EP, “The Reason,” to, “someone who gave up chasing a dream and who had the courage to start over.” It’s not about shooting for the stars, it’s about shooting for something realistic.
The protagonist of “The Reason” isn’t a superhero: He’s an ordinary man with a hedonistic streak who gives up his grand aspirations and instead becomes “just” a husband and a father – though not without internal strife.
On opening track “Free & Lonely,” lead singer Sam Harris sings against an ominous electric drone and clomping rhythm, “Get a job, get married, have kids … I left my life behind, but I ain’t got time to look back on when I was free.” As the song plays out, he moves west to live large, only to end up moving east again to try to live within his means.
The message is essentially repeated in a different sonic context on the subsequent “The Business,” with gurgling electro churning into a rock-anthem swell and Harris singing, “So long, so long/Going back to a nine to five … So much for keeping the dream alive … I’m going to give up the business.”
“The Reason’s” climax comes in the pained, bellowing wake-up call of “Giants” as Harris tries to reconcile expectations with desires: “Find a house, find a girl, settle down/But it ain’t enough, cause, oh, you want a little bit of everything. … We could be giants, the last of the hometown heroes.”
Then comes the twist – a shift in perspective to an innocent child – on the piano-driven “Unsteady”: “Dad, I know you’re trying to fight when you feel like flying. … This house don’t feel like home/If you love me don’t let go.” And in the dense mid-tempo grind of closer “Shining,” a resolute Harris turns to his loving wife: “I sleep better at night knowing that you are my shining star.”
“The Reason” is a modest mini-rock-opera, a humble tale about finding happiness in the mundane and suggesting that perhaps being surrounded by loved ones is a worthy dream after all.
