CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE, REMEMBERED (2023): Sad truths in postcards and phone calls home

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (aka Owen Ashworth) delivered one of Elsewhere's longtime and saddest favourite albums with Etiquette in 2006, an Essential Elsewhere album.

Critics speak of Leonard Cohen's insight in hushed tones and the emptying soul of Ian Curtis in Joy Division's songs.

But for our money they don't come close to the raw realities of Ashworth's poignant short stories in which he packs a lot of information and allusions into his lyrics.

Welcome to his world of acutely observed loneliness, regret, disappointment.

Three songs to take you into a place you may recognise.

Let me take you down . . . and down and down

We start with . . .

I Love Creedence (from the album Etiquette, 2006)

I'm Creedence Clearwater Wright

best friend of Elodie Eye

we've been tight since Percy Elementary

class of 1985

we moved together out to Philly after college

took a two bedroom at South & 9th

I sold my violin so we could have it easy

El got her grandmother's money when she died

we laughed like we were queens

& split our ballgowns at the seams

& every single time I'd dream

it was only El & me

but then she slipped away from me

she met a boy from New Jersey

& they fell fast in love of course

I swear it felt like a divorce

this September I'll be 26 years old

& El's the only one besides my dad

who's ever said I love you Creedence

took got a job downtown

it's an hour on the bus each way

typing letters for a lawyer in a bad toupee

it's dumb I know but it pays okay

& did I mention I moved out

I got my own place off of South

& I've been living hand to mouth

for going on a year by now

& yes I still see El around

it's different but I can't say how

she cut her hair it's back to brown

she's living with her boyfriend now

& since September I've been 26 years old

she's still the only one besides my dad

who's ever said I love you Creedence

and now this

Scattered Pearls (2006)

the clasp broke at the disco Mom I'm sorry

& the older men who hit on Becky

nearly broke their necks on scattered pearls

& we searched the best we could

for two entire songs we knelt & felt along

the place where we had stood

but we only found 7 of Grandmother's pearls

& as we rode the bus home I thought surely

I'd wake up tomorrow just to find

that I had dreamed up everything

there'd still be pearls on a string

I wouldn't smell like smoke & I'd still

have the cash that I had spent on drinks

oh I feel as scattered as Grandmother's pearls

Mom don't cry they're only pearls

And sadder than that perhaps, this?

Cold White Christmas (2006)

 

cap & gown in purple & gold

you're 22 years old & a woman now you're told

Aunt Beth & Charlie cut a check for the graduating niece

& you marked your independence with a signature on a lease

but home was a photograph you taped to your wall

it's gonna be a cold white Christmas in St Paul

beer for breakfast who's gonna scold

you've got your early hours dulled by the cigarettes you rolled

second shift as a fry cook that's your holiday in grease

& you trudge to work through the snow in a coat down to your knees

& you linger at the twinkle lights as you pass by the mall

& count the days to a cold white Christmas in St Paul

feather down the nights get so cold

& you ignore the smell of mold as you smooth out the folds

when you're on your own you've got no one to please

in a Minnesota city just as bare & as mean as the winter trees

but you'll be damned if you're the one making collect calls

on a cold white Christmas in St Paul

yeah it's a cold white Christmas in St Paul