Eric Anders and Mark O’Bitz is the songwriting partnership that we have shared before. The duo is back with Variant Blues, the fourth installment in their “music in the time of coronavirus” series. The album is described as “lyricism brimming over with frustration at society and the state of the world accented by a musical atmosphere of stillness.”
This stillness is felt in the warm glow of the opening number “Far Gone” a song that captures the 90s rock shine of artists like David Gray or even Filter. It’s a contrast to the songs anti-Trump message that highlights the album’s sense of brooding dystopia.
Speaking on their two most recent releases, Stuck Inside and Variant Blues, Eric Anders says:
Both albums are full of songs that try to capture something about these times of a global pandemic, climate change, and the rise of new forms of very old right-wing ideologies. Some through references to history, some with references to the poet Emily Dickinson, and others that are more directly about these troubled times we live in.
We had hoped to go into the studio to finish these albums during the spring and summer of 2021, but the Delta variant kept us all at home. These two albums were done almost completely remotely–90% remotely–with regard to the three principles: me, Mark O’Bitz, and Mike Butler, our producer.
Find “Far Gone” streaming now below and the entire album available to listen to and buy at Bandcamp.
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