THE SONGS:

World of Denial:
An energetic cannon blast of cynicism that rings even more true today than when I first recorded it 10,000 years ago.

Puppet:
My take on presidential politics. OLD song, wrote it about Reagan when I was with Soft War. I think this song applies just as well to George Junior but far less to his dad and to Clinton (and Obama), as the latter strike me as very astute (if perhaps utterly amoral).

Trust:
A song about how an ever-increasing economic disparity has shafted most of us, and how cunningly the notion of a master/slave economy is slowly being foisted upon us by The Powers That Be. As quite a few people have pointed out, the main guitar riff is almost indistinguishable from Jane Says by Jane's Addiction. This was completely unintentional as I was never into them and did not listen to commercial radio even back then. Since I've started doing this tune acoustically I have changed the rhythm...now it's a far more perky and bouncy song about economic pathos.

Beggars Cup:
Sort of a cousin to Trust lyrically. Same theme, but a more energetic and aggressive song. Nice little jazzy guitar lead on the verses.

One Way Train
I love this song, but I have yet to do it justice in a studio.  Poetic and stark at the same time, it has nothing to do with trains whatsoever. It actually has to do with hypocrisy, denial, and mortality.

Everything:
One of my favorites off the album, I released it as a single originally. A song about megalomania...not mine, though it is written in the first person.

Crucified:
Possibly the most angry song on the album, it's a blast of misanthropy that would have made Mencken blush. It has to do with how the exceptional amongst us are ignored, marginalized, or even "eliminated" by the majority. Not too cheery, but mostly true...ask Galileo.

The Hate God:
An anti-love song. Just kind of an exercise in negativity regarding romance...some chick blew me off and I got all pissed off about it.  I'm sure we're both better off.

Promises:
Another OLD song from the band I was in in Detroit for 5 years. It's a tragic song about alcoholism ruining a relationship. And no, it's not about me...I rarely drink.

Subhumans:
The original end piece of the album, it was a slam against the rising tide of ignorance and numbness that I saw engulfing our culture. I can't say that things have gotten any better these days...to put it mildly.

Only Mortal:
After I had left Soft War, I leapt right into the studio and recorded an albums worth of songs that have never seen the light of day aside from sending out some demo tapes. It's a good thing...a fair number of the songs just sucked! This one and the one that follows it are the only ones I actually like out of the whole mess. This one in particular is one of my favorites. There is a saxophone solo at the end by a brilliant keyboardist/sax player by the name of Barry Warner (who engineered the sessions) who used to gig with the Romantics in their heyday. A sad and sweet song.

One World State:
Kind of an updated take on the song Imagine by John Lennon. Far from being the paranoid screed that the title implies, this looks at the idea of a world government in a positive and hopeful light. At the time I recorded this song, I was a lot more hopeful about our collective future than I am now. 

Trust (Acoustic Version):
Did this one during the recording of Hell's Laughter with Jodi J on co-vocals.

One Way Train (Acoustic Version):
Same credits as the acoustic version of Trust.

LYRICS:
Are lying around in a paper file somewhere, maybe I'll type them up one of these days.

REVIEWS:

There were a ton of them.  Surprisingly enough, most of them were positive despite my crappy mixes.  As with the lyrics, most of these reviews were in the paper era and are sitting in a file box somewhere.