St. Paul and The Broken Bones Get Personal with “Angels in Science Fiction”
Album cover for Angels in Science Fiction by St. Paul and The Broken Bones
St. Paul and The Broken Bones have further explored funk with their fifth studio album Angels in Science Fiction. The album was recorded at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, a venue that has hosted recording sessions with Three 6 Mafia, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Bob Dylan. Their fifth record is all that you’d expect from a Broken Bones album: commitment to a sound that is all things southern soul, gothic, and experimental rock.
Previous LPs demonstrate sounds that jump back and forth between the bizarre and the all too familiar. Angels in Science Fiction sticks to that formula for the most part, with a few exciting exceptions. Among these include the album’s opening track “Chelsea,” where a simple piano line and frontman Paul Janeway’s dynamic voice carries the song–exploring a new milestone in Janeway’s life, his looming fatherhood. The band explores these themes through powerful musings: “I hope you get your mother’s eyes / Red clay cracked by the stream / Stars were just dead planets 'til you gave them life / Gave them life / I hope you get your mother’s hair.” This opening is incredibly intimate and honest. The subtlety of it all comes as a very lovely new layer of sound for the band. Janeway’s gripping exploration of parenting runs throughout the album, often veering off onto other topics. In the case of the track, “Sea Star,” Janeway sets aside a lesson from his own childhood in Alabama.
“‘Sea Star’ comes from a story told to me when I was young. The story goes that there was a man on the seashore, picking up starfish that had washed up and throwing them back into the sea,” Janeway said in a press release. He continues the story, alluding to the overwhelming amount of starfish upon the shore: “A person walked by and said, ‘Sir, you’re not going to make a dent in this. It’s not possible.’ The man chucked a starfish into the ocean and said, ‘I made a difference for that one.’ Then picked up another one, threw it into the ocean, and again said, ‘I made a difference for that one.’” In this story, Janeway passes down what was originally meant for him. With this story, “Sea Star” becomes one of the best tracks on the album. It’s a lesson translated to music—it’s Janeway reflecting on his own childhood identity and gifting it to his next generation.
Discussions of fatherhood are layered with Janeway’s own celebrity and performance-based lifestyle. The final track, “Marigold,” named after Janeway’s daughter, showcases a battle between being a parent and being an artist. Janeway sings, “A kiss before you fall asleep / Get lost in your ceiling, scared as hell / What might be underneath where you lay / A smile before you brush your teeth / I could stay right here and never leave / I’ve got to go, I’ve got a show / I’ve got a show.” The song is a heart-wrenching and thought-provoking finishing track that begs the listener to empathize with Janeway. It also pushes one to consider the future of a band that most definitely has turned a corner artistically, now touching upon themes of family.
Angels in Science Fiction is an altogether different being than The Alien Coast, St. Paul and The Broken Bones’ last album. If you compare the new album with the rest of their discography you may find semblances of the same, still very great and still very funky band in tracks such as “Oporto-Madrid Blvd” and “Wolf In Rabbit Clothes,” but leave no doubt that Angels in Science Fiction has raised the bar.