Tim Cohen is not the first musician to write a song called “Meat is Murder”; perhaps you’ve heard of the other one. But he is the first to deliver the titular phrase not as an edict, but as a sad taunt. The single from The Fresh & Onlys leader’s solo album Luck Man, which we’re premiering today, lurches along a sleazy groove, Cohen sounding like Daughn Gibson doing his best Nick Cave at truck-stop karaoke.
Accordingly, the lyric is a small-scale blue-collar drama: “I wake up in the middle of the night and I cry / Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night,” Cohen sings in a barrel-scraping baritone. He delivers the chorus in a pinched falsetto, and it feels less like the a conviction and more of a signal of how out of touch the Two Americas are from one another; when you’re facing down hardcore existential threats, how are you supposed to take a cry like “meat is murder” seriously?
“I like to think I’m leaving bits of wisdom behind, but I don’t possess the wisdom for longer than it takes to make a song,” Cohen says. “I inherit it momentarily, write it down, attach a melody that fits the words in rhythm, and then record it.”
You can give “Meat is Murder” a listen below, and pick up Luck Man on January 20 when it drops via Sinderlyn. You can preorder the album here.
