It’s a cryptic project with brief moments of uplift. Lines such as “Heaven smiles above me/What a gift here below” (“No One Knows”) and “I want something good to die for/To make it beautiful to live” (“Go With the Flow”) are like flowers growing out of cracks in a sidewalk.
The singer appeals for more booze and cinematic gore on “You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire.” “A Song for the Dead” displays a bizarre preoccupation with death. That track and others use the f-word. “Gonna Leave You” and “Another Love Song” end romances with a vindictive flair. Life is an unsatisfying burden on “The Sky Is Fallin’.” The creepy “Mosquito Song” may be metaphorical, but references to “hanging hooks,” “bloody knives” and people being emaciated by bloodthirsty parasites are unsettling. Spewing obscenities, “Six Shooter” threatens, “I’ll f—in’ kill your best friend/What you f—in’ gonna do?” Religious broadcasting gets a subtle slap on “God Is in the Radio,” which also feels irreverent (“I know that God is in the radio/Just repeating a slogan”).
This stickered disc has little of value to say. It’s angry. It’s profane. And any glimmers of hope get negated by pessimism. Songs for the Deaf is appropriately titled since it is best consumed by those unable to hear it.
