Best tunes of 2013: #24 Steve Mason “Oh my Lord”

My maxim for a number of years now has been “So much music, so little time.” As focused as I’ve been over the last couple of decades on keeping on top of the best music available, rather than settling in on the heap of proven music already in my collection, I often find myself behind and missing out on some great releases. Just as an example, I have a running playlist for which I post a part every quarter year, that includes songs from some of my favourite releases for those three months, but inevitably I discover a song or album or EP after the fact that I could have easily included.

Steve Mason’s brilliant sophomore solo album, “Monkey minds in the devil’s time”, was one of those albums that I originally missed out on when it was originally released in March 2013. I came upon it months later, kicked myself after listening to it and catching interest mere moments after the spoken word intro faded into the reverberating and haunting “Lie awake”. And even now, I often lose sight of how compelling of a listen it is, until I come around to it again. Thank goodness I have these lists that I create that force me to go back and revisit all the music I’ve loved over the years.

…But I am digressing…

In the decade that passed after Steve Mason abdicated his post as frontman of indie buzz group, The Beta Band, he suffered bouts of poverty and depression, released a variety of material under multiple pseudonyms, and most importantly, seemingly rediscovered his joy for writing new music. And thank goodness for such small mercies. “Oh my lord”, the first proper single off of “Monkey minds in the devil’s time”, appeals to my penchant and weakness for a good groove. The piano lays a jaunty riff and the drum beat jives easily with the laid back bass line while Mason leaves it all laid bare, a soulful turn on vocals. It just bleeds old-school psychedelic blues rock, à la Primal Scream’s “Give out but don’t give up”, but with more sincerity.