I understand that in 2021 most people are probably looking to art such as music, movies, books, and series to distract us from the ever devolving mess out there, but I'm Irish, so I'm still a sucker for the melancholic, and I still champion the idea that one of art's functions is to remind us we are human; especially in a world where technology can connect us but also alienate us. Sometimes art has to provoke an emotional response and sometimes those emotions will be the darker kind.

That brings me to the album Brave Faces Everyone by the band Spanish Love Songs. In their own words, this album is meant to acknowledge that you're "not alone on this sinking ship". The goal is not to depress you, but to recognize that everyone's hurting. In a world obsessed with opinions and political stances but not the genuine feelings of the people, I find that approach refreshing.

Nowhere is this "all feeling, no surface" way of expression clearer on the dynamite opening track Routine Pain. The lyrics unapologetically bleed heartbreak and loneliness into your ears. The chorus pleads to let the narrator "ruin my guts tonight" as he tries to escape through alcohol. The verses are framed in bombastic drum fills and the song builds to a climax but not before an intimate bridge that recognizes all the other people in the bar trying to run away from their "routine pain".

Sure some of this might be a little too abrasive, heart on sleeve for some people. There's also that classic rock problem of a band giving their fans a little too much of what they want and a certain sameness to the sound maybe a little "rock by numbers" but nobody rips AC/DC a new one for doing that. Also, I see a lot of potential here and I can't wait to see what Spanish Love Songs give us in the future. Maybe now they've exercised those ghosts on this album, it's time to go Rage Against the Machine on the next one

Almost every song deals with generational problems, lack of work and low pay, the indignity of adults having to live with their parents, trapped in debt, the feeling of having no alternatives, using drugs and alcohol as an"out". If this is Millennium punk, well it breaks my heart, but then I guess that was the point.