Adeem the Artist -- Notes From Inside

Adeem the Artist's new release, Notes From Inside, is a highly personal album. While all releases have something of the artist behind them embedded into their music and lyrics, Notes From Inside is a peek inside Adeem's mental and emotional state over the past year or so.

I don't know much about Adeem, save for the great music they make, and I'm not one for social media gossip, but judging by the songs on this album, they haven't been having the greatest time of it recently. Course, you try being a non-binary/pansexual, country artist in Trump's America and see how upbeat you are.

While many of us won’t know what brought on whatever crises Adeem was suffering through, listening to the songs gives us clear picture of how rough a time they’ve been having. Now, hurting songs are a dime a dozen in today’s country music - and most of them aren’t worth the oxygen they wasted being recorded. This isn’t that type of album. If you’re looking for safe beer-drinking, my-baby-left-me-for-another-truck songs, you obviously don’t know anything about Adeem. The songs on Notes From Inside are as far from those pieces of tripe as you can get without leaving the planet.

Adeem writes from a place of genuine pain and passion. There is a coarseness that comes from the fraying of nerves and emotions rubbed raw in their voice. Yet in spite of the cathartic nature of the material they never descend into self-indulgent navel gazing. There is an amount of self-awareness to these songs you rarely find in popular music of any genre. Adeem knows who they are and makes no secret of their foibles and weaknesses. "But I've got some demons in the trunk of my car too babe/ Did someone send you to ruin me?" they sing on the album's opening track "Ruin Me."

However, this is not a confessional album intended to make us feel sorry for them. Instead we get a simple laying out of facts. Adeem has been through some stuff, but they are dealing with it and explaining it through music is part of the process. They are also brutally honest in their self assessment.

Who else do you know would pen lyrics saying the only reason they've not committed suicide is "that I will get my whole life poorly summarized/In shocking grit with grizzled wit by strangers who know half of it/and I will get remembered as a Jason Isbell b-side." While there's a poignancy to these lyrics, there's also the acceptance that they need to stick around so they can continue to write their own story.

Notes From Inside isn’t just about Adeem’s personal life. In “Made For Me” they take issue with self serving Christians by giving them a short homily told from Jesus’ point of view. “I didn’t come down here to die/that idea came from you guys/think I was meant to crucify?/no that’s a choice you made”….."Wonder if you realize I never was a Christian/neither was a single fucking dude I’ve ever known”.

Adeem is one of the most biting and insightful songwriters around these days. On Notes From Inside their deft use of the English language is front and center. With musical accompaniment limited to their work on guitar and banjo their voice and words command our attention. This album is one of those cases where austere is better - nothing for the emotions and ideas to hide behind.When they howl out "I'm learning to drive again/reving the loud engine/drown out the voices of my past with the fierce fucking power of the present/I'm learning to drive again" at the end of "Learning to Drive Again" it's like their own declaration of independence. Adeem is telling us they've been through some shit, but they're making their way through it. They're back and stronger then ever.

Notes From Inside is not your typical introspective look into my heart and brain album. It's raw, a little frightening, and really good. Adeem The Artist is a powerful and beautiful songwriter and this album sees them at their best. Its a powerful statement about the possibility for recovery and rebirth - and its great music.

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