This Mad Desire’s New “AMERICAN DREAM” — Timeless Songs, for Today’s Times…
The brand new album from This Mad Desire’s, “American Dream” has been described as containing “ timeless songs designed for the times.”
Mackenzie Kristjon, the founder of the Canadian band that has been garnering rave reviews, says the new album includes collaborations with hit producer Mark Zubek of Zedd Records) and Dan Konopka of OKGo.
“When I started working on the American Dream album, I was inspired by the Basic Income effort and the idea that a lot of human suffering and poverty could end by considering this concept. As the pandemic started, the fragility of the world economy was exposed. I felt that through this video we could reflect on what is tearing us apart and hopefully find some unity in our shared view of equality and human rights.”
Showing tenacity and determination, the album was recorded over two years — using the services available for creatives at the Hamilton Public Library. (Hamilton is a city in Canada near Toronto.) “Most of the tracks were recorded at Library’s Dundas branch, which has a music studio in the children’s department,” Kristjon says, pointing out that this added to the public art dimension of the record, which already “has a community minded focus.”
STAND UP AND DREAM AGAIN is the flagship song on the album — an affecting commentary on America, race, and injustice with a video that takes viewers on a journey from history to today (with a portion of any profits to go to Black Lives Matter.)
The exciting new album also includes covers of Elected by Alice Cooper (the artist points out how fitting that is for an American election year). He also does a shout out to iconoclastic Canadian singer-songwriter Bob Wiseman with a compelling version of “What the Astronaut Noticed And Then Suggested.”
A song of particular note to the Icelandic community (of which the Kristjon family is a part, his mother being the author of a well regarded cultural cookbook to which he contributed,) is the song Reykjavik Shuffle. In a media release, Mackenzie tells the story of how he was in Iceland in 2018 “… and there was an article in Morgunblaðið, which suggested that because he was writing songs about cities like Paris of Love, then maybe he should get to work on a track called Reykjavik Shuffle.” Mere days after returning home to Canada, he says, laughing, he wrote that song. “The lyrics include references to huldufolk, Eyjafjallajokull, and the Blue Lagoon, and to acknowledge my Gimli roots, it also refers to another possible dance called the Gimli Glide, named after the famous Gimli Glider.”
In a sad note, the album is dedicated to This Mad Desire’s former drummer Jim Perry, who passed away unexpectedly in 2017. He appears on the song Perfect Ring (lyrics by the legendary Leonard Cohen.) In tribute to Perry, Kristjon says, any proceeds from the song will be donated to mental health services.
The artist says that $5 from the sale of the album on thismaddesire.bandcamp.com is being donated to Black Lives Matter.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said : “He describes his sound as “Neil Young on David Bowie drugs.” I don’t know that anyone could ever be that stoned, but this is catchy, either way.”
Hamilton’s Urbanicity Magazine said about the band : “Some songs just stick. It’s like superglue: you’ve got 20secs and then you’re caught.”
The music is fantastic, and the messages therein are important.
See the video for the single STAND UP AND DREAM AGAIN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2lJ4YehS54
Check it out on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/thismaddesire/sets/american-dream
