NO TRUE SCOTSMAN EP
Released December 2nd, 2016
ALBUM NOTES
No True Scotsman’s self-titled EP is a debut collection of original works written, recorded, produced by its members.
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Whirligigs, written by vocalist Eva Araya, is a whimsical inner-monologue directed at a recent love interest whose interest in her is unrequited. With a twinge of annoying guilt, she points out the unfairness in faking romance for another’s comfort, but also highlights the clear divide between physical intimacy and the following expected emotional intimacy. “Don’t try so hard to change how it is,” she says, and examines guilt and shame as two-sided processes: “...when I try to form those words my tongue falls flat and it gets worse; my fingers twitch and my eyes begin to shift.The only thing that seems to work is letting them go on undisturbed, and meanwhile I’m just looking to connect.”
Your Species’ Anthem, written by composer and guitarist Seth T. T. Scott, describes his deep fascination with a singer just out of his reach. She’s beautiful, she’s interesting, and she’s got one of the “top ten” voices he’s ever heard, including those of songbirds. But there’s a catch—she’s fascinated with someone else, and he can’t wrap his head around it. It’s a cool love song, “cool” in the most literal sense; he can’t show his romantic infatuation without seeming too passionate.
The Ballad of Psyche, also by Seth, is arguably the EP’s most classically influenced song--musically and literarily. The lyrics recall the tragedy of Cupid and Psyche, a tumultuous conflict between mortal and her godly lover. In this modern rendition, the narrator originally believed they took Cupid’s role, but then has the crushing realization that the “tides have shifted.” Now they more closely resemble Psyche in her never-ending chase. It is a love that cannot be, kept apart by the forces of nature and a journey through the afterlife. For the narrator, this chase manifests in the inevitability of sleep—unable to stay awake until dawn without the help of their lost lover.
A Mouse’s Heartbeat, written by Seth, is a dedication to No True Scotsman’s hometown, New Orleans. The love song to a city that is sinking into the sea acts as an appreciation of the temporal over the permanent. Neither the city nor its admirer will survive this century, and both are confined to a limited number of heartbeats before ultimately passing on. However, there is beauty in the temporary, be it life or the minute instances therein.
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