Album Notes

Rick Anton started writing songs during his first stay in the psychiatric ward. He found that putting words onto paper helped him to look objectively to the demons that were haunting him. If nobody was willing to listen to him, at least paper would. Originally a classically trained musician, he became bored with expressing others emotions while harboring a firestorm of toxic thoughts. Produced in the appropriately named Psychoacoustic studios with producer/engineer/left-wing-agitator Doug Ackman, this Chicago-based queer artist proved his point by saying what needed to be said. Emotional Honesty is the accumulation of therapy, Prozac and a coming out story. Sarcasm, cynicism and anger all come out on this not quite rock, not quite emo record. The album starts off with the defiant “Freak of Nature”, an in-your-face anthem to anyone who’s ever failed to stay within the lines. It then moves into the Depeche Mode-esque “Haunted By”, a testament to the past. “Won’t Fade Away” hits you like an angry child with the repeated lines “I’ll never forgive you for what you did to me”. Ironically-named “Sweet Revenge” is the antidote with its message of forgiveness. “That You Could Never Do” gives the album its title while touting the joys of being oversensitive. A theme song for sissy-boys, he seems to be making fun of those who aren’t sensitive. Jealousy and low self-esteem come out in the ironically upbeat melody of “I Wonder If You Know”. The odd tempo of “Euphoria” is suitable for an odd topic for a song: bipolar disorder, with its crash landing of jolting rhythm and manic lyrics. Not to be left out of the love song market, Rick throws in two of them next. “Disappearing” describes struggling with a failing relationship and “Life Moves On” uses a lyrical electric bass line to describe the wreckage of its failure. Not to fear, he moves on to a new love interest with the guitar-based electronica rock song “Touch Me” with its catchy lyrics and powerful backing vocals. In a paradoxical twist, he takes what would otherwise be a light-hearted song about gratitude and spirituality and backs then it with a haunting rock riff. A listener feels a bit enlightened when the song reaches its pinnacle sitar solo. It’s as if the goal of emotional honesty has been reached with a new understanding and the album seems to have a coherent purpose as a whole. The record ends with fag-hag tribute “My Guardian Angel Is Crying” – a solemn ending to a solemn journey. What could have been if we lived in a world filled with emotional honesty?