CHAPS - In All Directions
In this "bedeviling" collection of ten songs, CHAPS delivers a series of body-altering character studies on his album In All Directions, writes Bee Delores.
In one of several five-minute songs, "How to Unfold," CHAPS releases some of the year's thorniest lyrics. "Humiliate me and cut me right down to the bone," he moans over a luminescent arrangement. A haunting vocal worms its way into the membrane and practically jolts the skeletal system. His new album, In All Directions, is packed with similarly body-altering songs, particularly "A Place Below" and "Wild Fennel."
"The Fire Left in My Bones" strikes hot and severe against the eardrums. It emerges as CHAPS' best song to date, as he clings to life itself. "Then the diagnosis came - six months if you're lucky," he sings through tears. "And the chemicals might work, but girl, they'll leave you bowed and bloody." Through a terrible trial, the song's central figure gathers what strength (i.e., fire still stoked in the soul) they have left and lives so fearlessly that they learn what life really means.
With "Death Grip," the singer-songwriter pours out an equally startling performance. "If I still had the spirit, I'd try being self-destructive / But at 35-years-old, it's best to stay unproductive," he unburdens himself. Later, he considers: "I try to count the extra beats that rattle loose inside my chest / Get a handle on this body, out of time."
CHAPS frequently paints with sweeping pastels, as he does on songs like "Night Drives" and "Young Men in Suits," a deceptively glowing moment about wartime. CHAPS is a bedeviling songwriter, adeptly twisting around socially timely songs that deliver a wallop to the jawline. "They made a machine out of wires and tubes," he observes in the latter. "Electron by electron, they made the world anew / And made it in their image, these young men in suits."
In All Directions winds through human existence, turning over every stone in its path. 10 songs serve as snapshots of life, and CHAPS is a campfire storyteller, around which we all gather to soak in powerful tales about life's tragedy and the beauteous spring flowers that poke through cracked concrete. Pain makes us appreciate the brightness of living on a greater, more affirming plane. It's through the toughest times that we get closer to who we're meant to be.
Art is often a catalyst for finally swallowing hard truths. Despite everything, CHAPS doesn't flinch when it comes to writing honestly about the world and his place within it. Mostly reflective, In All Directions forces the mirror in front of the listener's face. As you delve deeper into its earthy exterior, you come to understand not only the artist but yourself in an ever-changing and disastrous world.
