Aaron Lee Tasjan has always sung from personal experience blended with a vivid imagination. He looks at himself and wonders what he was thinking, then looks at the world and goes, “WTF”. His seventh studio release, Get Over It, Underdog, follows in those same wonderful footprints. Tasjan creatively lets one know what he’s thinking and feeling without limiting himself to surface realities. Listening to these 11 songs is like wandering through a funhouse hall of mirrors, only to realize the scariest reflections are the ones that are not distorted.
In press releases promoting this album, Tasjan has confessed to battling imposter syndrome. He did not know who he was anymore. His friend, colleague, and East Nashville neighbor (the late) Todd Snider helped him get out of the funk; or perhaps, put the funk into his music. The music on his latest record has never had a fuller drum and bass foundation. Tracks such as “Clown Show”, “Twilight Zone Blues”, and “Ballad of an East Canton Lowlife” sound like they were recorded in someone’s basement in a good way. There is something subterranean about the contents.
Other tracks are more Beatlesque during their post-Sgt. Pepper phase. Tasjan has always had a psychedelic streak. In songs such as “Can I Get an Amen” and “Shiver”, the specific references and absurd wordplay—”Her degree in art. Her quick left hook. She’s writing a children’s book”—are reminiscent of songs like “She Came in Through the Bedroom Window” and “Lady Madonna”.
This is even more apparent when the lyrics are combined with the playfulness of Tasjan’s guitar riffs. He’s having fun, but the words have meaning that goes beyond their inanity. He’s expressing the interior thoughts of the protagonists that may be unhinged or driven to such extremes by living in the absurd world in which we currently find ourselves. It is not all that different from John Lennon and Paul McCartney crooning lines such as “Sunday’s on the phone to Monday / Tuesday’s on the phone to me” during a time of global unrest (1968).
Tasjan lays out his objections to our current situation in the very first song, “Science Friction”. He highlights the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, “Man-made machines putting man out of business”, and the power of the rich to control what we see and hear. He delivers the warning with the stark clarity of a weather service broadcast: “When wealth dictates control / Ideas no longer flow.” Rather than declaring total doom, he simply cautions us to watch out for our safety.
The remaining cuts feature marginal characters, such as himself when he was younger, who are the victims of authoritarian administrations. The core philosophy can be found on “The Real”, a song co-written with fellow outsider Todd Snider. We need to fight for all people to be equal, for fairness, and collective healing. They let the guitars do most of the talking. One must feel it instead of just saying it.
Ultimately, Tasjan celebrates music as a vital force that enriches existence, especially in the delightful “Lydia’s Blues”, inspired by a Lydia Loveless show he witnessed. His tribute is funny and heartfelt: “She goes harder than Bea Arthur / She’s the golden one.” As both a witness and creator, Aaron Lee Tasjan finds joy and pleasure where he can. He ends the album with the reflective “The Dream Comes True”, where he autobiographically sees himself and others like Snider and Loveless, who live the dream by practicing their art and sharing it with others.