Album Review :: Misser :: Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

There isn’t a ton of info on Misser aside from the act that the band is a duo comprised of members of Transit and This Time Next Year and Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person is their debut LP. Oh yeah, and they are fucking awesome. 

Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person’s strength, personality, and uniqueness comes largely from the back and forth vocal style between Tim Landers and Brad Wiseman. There is both great contrast and great harmony between the two vocals that  is used so precisely so that they create beautiful moments out of nowhere.

The lyrics on this album are simple, yet so honest and clever. There are lines that are so poignant, honest, and simple they struck me so deeply so instantly, there are lines that take command of the sounds of the words in order to create something so catchy that you have no hope of getting them out of your head, and there are lines that are so clever and eloquent that poets will be envious. Pay attention to the lyrics, there are some fantastic lyrics in these songs.

I really love first tracks or intros that have nothing to do with or sound anything like the rest of the album. I kind of like to have the band put me on my toes as soon as the album kicks off, Misser does this with a folky acoustic track. The second track, Time Capsules caught me totally off guard because it was so different than the acoustic song that preceded it. Time Capsules is one of those songs that is so catchy that you need to listen to again immediately after it is over. The alternating vocals are great throughout the whole album, but there is something so unique and special in this track. Each time I listen to it, I love it even more, like this is the one song that you need to listen to. Now.

Bridges is the track that introduces us to a recurring theme within Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person (a theme which is very identifiable to so many listeners), the desperate need to get the hell out of the town you grew up in, but you have something (or someone) tying your heart back there. The conflict that arises from leaving, starting a new life, and staying connected to what is important in the old one is started with Bridges and different aspects are explored in Stay Asleep, I’m Sick, and The Waits.

I’m Really Starting to Hope That The World Ends in 2012 is an interesting comment on entertainment, art, and society. I love that it is a song that is clearly about intense dissatisfaction and yet it is upbeat and catchy. The repetition of the phrase “Of 3D reality TV on repeat” over and over creates the air of mindlessness that inspired the song.

Stay Asleep is a slow, quite, heavy song. This song carries an emotional weight as heavy as the sound of the song is light. Though the whole song is beautiful, there is a moment in the middle where the music fades out and the vocals are in unison to create an ethereal sound. This is a close second for my favorite track.

She Didn’t Turn Out To Be That Cool is a great relationship song for those of us who ever tried to make the long distance thing work, and felt totally unfulfilled by the whole situation. My favorite element of this track is the trading off of the repeated lines of the chorus, with the music dropping out at the end of the last repetition. The Waits is full of underlying anger and passion. Though the vocals lie somewhere between singing and screaming, the emotional connotation is clear and is what makes this track something special.

I know that I talked about so many of these tracks, but man, they are all so freaking good and different that I couldn’t leave any of them out. Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person is out now on Rise Records. 

And for the last time, at least check out Time Capsules.