A sometimes embarrassing, but always earnest, album recorded in my friend's bedroom over a few nights in 2005 while I tried to process the Worst Breakup of My Young Life. May we all feel feelings and make-sometimes-embarrassing-but-always-earnest art like a 24 year-old in excruciating love.

But some of these songs are fucking good! And they all have at least little moments I'm proud of.

"Anybody Here" has a really cool chord progression and would probably kick some real ass with a rhythm section. Gotta dig some of that George W. Bush-era political angst, too. (It felt so EDGY at the time.)

"You" was maybe my favorite song I'd ever written by that point. The vocal is trash, but Josh's piano line is gorgeous, and I always liked paying a little homage to Sam Cooke with the melody line at the beginning of each verse.

"Vacant Lot" is a little wink/nod at Stephen King's DARK TOWER series, and I adore how weird it is. I remember someone once asking me on MySpace(!) what we did to get those strange noises throughout. I never told then and I'll never tell now. Cool middle 8, too.

"Emily" is just a nice little love song and it's got a really nice new arrangement that maybe one day I'll be able to record. This song has grown on me over the years. (For the record, no, the breakup wasn't with a girl named Emily, but it is a very nice name innit.)

"Poor Franklin" is a wacky little story song inspired by the character of that same name in Tobe Hooper's TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. That's Josh, once again, rocking the synth sitar and tablas.

"Please Keep Me In Mind" is pure earnestness disguised as a little country pastiche. Meant every word, though. It actually might have even been the last song I played for the Person in Question. I remember she liked it ...

"I Can't Wait to Get You Alone" needs a full-band rerecord, and a less tentative lead vocal, but it's a fine little trad rock song. It also reuses the middle 8 from "Anybody Here" on purpose. That was originally going to be a musical theme that ran through several more songs but it got a little much so I pared it down to just a few.

"Nothin' Left to Say" and "Home" are both probably the most embarrassing in that they're SO vulnerable and plainfaced and kinda artless. There's nothing really imaginative about the recordings (though I love Josh's organ work on "Home," which was explicitly inspired by the Rolling Stones' "I Got the Blues") and, frankly, I just wasn't a strong enough singer or performer then to pull them off. I could do the hell out of both numbers now, I'm sure (I'm not a BETTER singer now, but I at least know how to use what I've got). At the time, though, I wanted to do them once and run away from them. You might feel differently but to me they're super vulnerable songs that don't even *sound* vulnerable because they were *so* vulnerable that they became generic. Whatta conundrum, huh?

"Good Seein' You Again," though, is one of my favorite tracks I've ever recorded. Josh's arrangement kicks ass. My vocal isn't great but it's not bad (probably shoulda been moved up a whole step so I could belt it more), and the lyrics are snappy. Good job, baby me.

And "Everything Reminds Me of You Tonight" is the one time I think that the earnestness and the vulnerability actually work together. It's plain but it's heart-felt. I tried not to be scared of the emotion this time, or hide behind any sort of pastiche. I always imagined a big string section kicking in, but now I'm glad there's nothing. And I always liked how it brought the themes from "Emily" and "Anybody Here"/"Can't Wait" back round again to close the album out.