“With 16 original songs full of odd characters, clever wordplay and genuine observations Mogipbob takes the mundane details of everyday life and makes them worth listening to.”
Mogipbob’s third album, Anything but Me, sees the Canadian songwriter combining country-soul, folk-rock, blues, funk and retro-soul. It’s a collection of 16 tracks all rooted in storytelling with a real interest in the every day person, the oddity of everyday life and the humour to be found in the mundane. He doesn’t really stick to one thing musically, the songs just drift between the various roots-inspired styles, resulting in an album that is both playful and full of more considered moments. The album title alone is a case in point, it’s a title that makes you want to find out what’s in it.
The opening track ‘Set-Back Out Back’ is a fairly typical opener in terms of the sort of thing we’re used to. Next up is ‘Hell’s Bell Bottoms’ which is a very retro sounding title and immediately conjures up a certain image. ‘Walking Bass’ is a title that suggests a bit more funk and soul, a bit more of a groove. The first few tracks establish the range of the record in that it’s going to be country, it’s going to be soul, it’s going to be a bit of funk, but it’s all very much about character and about the person. “As Is Where Is” gets its name from a common phrase and that’s another one of the track titles that’s going to be a very familiar expression. “Some Things Never Change” is a bit more of a reflective piece, about the things that just stay the same. There’s a contrast in “Modern Person Ancient Solutions” which is a very interesting juxtaposition of the modern day with ancient solutions. “Solid as Metal” is a suggestion of strength and reliability, and “First Degree Second Decree” is another of Mogipbob’s love of odd word pairings. The titles as a whole are a demonstration of how he can take common language and turn it into something that makes you think. ‘The Fleas of Hercules’ is one of the most odd titles on the record. The sheer oddity of the image and the humour it brings is very much in keeping with the songwriter’s tendency to stray from the conventional. ‘Impartial Marshal’ is a distinctly western title and again is very much in the tradition of the storytelling that informs Mogipbob’s work. Both of those titles point to the importance of character and the situation in his songwriting, with a simple idea being the springboard for a good yarn. The album continues with ‘Sunday Drive’ which is such a classic small town thing to have as a title. It’s very much in the vein of Mogipbob’s interest in the everyday and the stories that can be found in the everyday. ‘Livery Delivery’ continues the lightness of the wordplay and ‘Umpire Vampire’ is another one of the more memorable examples of his sense of humour. Those tracks again are very much the lighter side of the album and underline the fact that he’s quite happy to play with language and to find the funny in the oddball.
As we near the end of the collection the tone suggested by the titles becomes rather more reflective. ‘The Old Me Was the Young Me’ is a title that immediately raises questions about memory, identity and the nature of the past and present self. That’s followed by ‘It’s the Little Things That Matter Most’ which is a title that focuses on the small details. We finish with the title track ‘Anything but Me’ which is a rather interesting statement about identity. Those three final tracks provide a very thoughtful way to close the collection after all the playfulness of the earlier tracks. An interesting aspect of the album’s creation is Mogipbob’s use of AI in the production. The songwriting concepts, the lyrics, the structures and the creative direction are all human written and human directed. AI is used as a tool to help realise the arrangements and the performances. The songs themselves remain very much the product of human ideas. Anything but Me covers 16 tracks and is very much an album about the little things in life, the humour, the contradictions and the little details. It’s a very broad musical album in terms of the styles involved, incorporating country-soul, folk-rock, blues, funk and retro-soul. The titles are all very unusual and the subject matter is very varied. It’s a very much a collection of songs that are inspired by the people and the experiences that Mogipbob has around him. There’s a lot of playfulness in there as well as some more personal pieces.
English