The moribund meaningless of the everyday drab workforce is at play in every note of Albert DeMuth’s single and video off his self-titled debut solo album released earlier this month. DeMuth, of Providence psychedelic freaks Cottaging, professes that the majority of the eight-song LP was recorded in an attic in Cambridge, MA—the house under which caught fire, forcing a relocation to Rhode Island. It’s circumstances like these that seem to constantly question the morality of the universe and inspire a record as grim as this.
The track, titled, “Finally Found a Job” is no different. A quietly bleak electric guitar hums, with brief dramatic flourishes, while DeMuth’s monotone monologue sarcastically, begrudgingly describes the entry into the all-important workplace, and the newfound sense of purpose that comes with it. The video is black and white, filmed under a single swaying lightbulb, as dimly lit as the subject matter and attitude of the song. Brief flashes of deathly imagery—a bovine skull, a ripple pool of silty black water, walking through an empty cemetery—recur to remind us of the end result of “working overtime all the time.”
