I’ve been a Math Club guy since the first minute I heard Wade Morrison’s lyrics. There’s something about his heart-on-sleeve emo sound that connects with me on almost a cellular level. His new record Sleeping in the Sun came out last week, and I’ve been working on this post since I finished my first listen. It’s cathartic and poetic, and he’s one of my favourite songwriters.

This was the first single from it, “Until It Breaks”:

When I was going through an incredibly rough patch several years ago, every minute I could spare was spent listening to Counting Crows’ August and Everything After and The Weakerthans’ Reconstruction Site. Those two albums kept me grounded and gave me relief and emotional release when things were at their lowest. Sleeping in the Sun scratches that same itch. What’s distinctive about this record though is the sense of hope and optimism that most of these songs tend to finish with. Morrison’s songs often revolve around the idea that Things Were Bad, But We Got Through It.

I’m not generally one to quote lyrics at length, but like the bands mentioned above, these are songs are built around poems as much as they are lyrics written to melody. Several of his songs bring me to tears if I pay close attention. From “Until It Breaks” above:

You’re planting roses
Ground yourself in sweet perfume/And try to find your focus
Grind a little coffee, understand your diagnosis
Lock into a rhythm now, You disassociate
When things get hard, with too much on your plate
Listen to the birds outside and give yourself some grace
“Listen, friend, I’m sorry if I left you in the clutch I never knew you needed me that much”

His language is so concrete, visual – almost every song has a setting, and he takes you right there. Living rooms in the 1980s, or in a crappy car in the deep winter cold, maybe a hospital. All of these are painted perfectly in the songs on this record.

It’s not a fun record, it’s definitely a solo listen. Better yet, it’s a ‘take a long drive by yourself’ record. These songs deal in themes of mental illness, fear, regret, forgiveness and optimism that things are gonna be ok. There isn’t much in the way or vague metaphor or ambiguity in these lyrics – it takes a lot of guts to be as direct as Morrison is.

“The Sun (Again)” is a perfect example of this. The song is filled with crushing anxiety, panic, depression and sadness:

Hallelujah to the awful break of day/Trying to move on, but l’ve got oceans in the way/Swimming through the deep end of the air outside my house/Hallucinating stoplights, something new to slow me down

But it ends on an optimistic note, of self-care, radical acceptance, recovery and hope:

Hey, I’m feeling better now, but the bar was pretty low/Held myself accountable and finally let it go/Thanks for standing by, staying stable, keeping close
When the morning breaks around the bend/I’m sleeping in the sun again

Math Club finds peace in tiny, quiet moments and beauty in details. The songs are often better the closer you listen. I don’t know what Morrison has been through to be able to write songs like this, but I’m very grateful that he shares them.

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