Critterthing Is a “Threat to Your Convenience” on Save Room LP
Review by: Jim Byron, Writer @altindielegends
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Editor @melodicnoisemedia
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Album art for Critterthing’s “Save Room”
On their latest album, Save Room, St. Paul jangle punk outfit Critterthing blend harmony and dissonance with wide-spanning dynamics ranging from the intimate to the guttural. Critterthing consists of Claire Rogalsky on vocals and guitar, as well as songwriter, Michelle Kil'Dager on guitar, Ben Roberts on bass, and Grady Westling on drums and backup vocals.
Save Room takes the listener through a sonic and lyrical journey at times harsh, at times gorgeous; with lyrics that feel like they’d be at home on a tattoo or scrawled on a dive bar bathroom stall. One standout line repeats several times, “I’m a threat to your convenience.” It contrasts with a line shared by the two title tracks, “in the dark someone else might depend on your light.” These lyrics clash with the character portrayal of an anti-queer vigilante, “When I catch you out queering around, hand holding…watch your back. I'll crack your fucking kneecaps.” This is an authentic depiction of the threats faced by queer and trans people. The album as a whole, seemingly a love letter to black sheep and a middle finger to those whose comfort doesn’t tolerate the unusual.
On the songs “Save Room” and “Save Room (Reprise)” Claire sings, “Save your game. Keep your pride in your chosen name. Write it down. Stay alive… In the dark someone else might depend on your light.” The melodic foundation of “Save Room” clangs with dissonant intervals while spoken word vocals sooth over top. Later, “Save Room (Reprise)” has a more harmonious sequence with a trippier arrangement and contains exclusively the quoted section of lyrics. That particular lyrical section weighs with a great deal of sincerity and the concept of survival not only for oneself, but to be a light for others.
The line that stands out most memorably to me comes on the third song, ”Nice Toys.” “It's getting harder just to count the barriers you put between us. So pull the trigger, sell me out 'cause I'm a threat to your convenience. I'm a threat to your convenience. I'm a threat to your convenience. I'm a threat to your convenience.” Those lines come in the final section of the lyrics amidst grooving and hard-hitting guitar, bass, and drum hits. Those repeated words ring like a mantra of defiance against a world that demands people comply with conformity and norms that pose “barriers… between us”. Those lyrics follow the gut punch of a statement, “Your freedom came at a cost. Did that shit get lost on you? Well, where the fuck did it go? Over your head and out the window, down on the people like mine, down on the people that died for you.” This brutal assessment declares the hard fought freedom allotted to its recipient wasted. It’s a strong call to action for individuals to make good use of the freedoms others before them fought for, and a reminder that the struggle continues.
The reality of that struggle becomes starkly prescient in the next song “Sticks.” Claire sings, “Don't assume you're safe in the bathroom against the wall your single stall is a perfect tomb,” and “When I hunt you down, queering around, kissing and this and that, watch your back. I'll crack your fucking kneecaps. That and this watch your six. I'll leave you in the sticks.” It renders an anti-queer, anti-trans stalker threatening serious harm against the audience. What’s so haunting about this song lies in that despite its viscerally frightening message and use of a slur for trans people, it’s a sure candidate for the prettiest track on the album. It’s a jarring listening experience, hearing such jangly, gorgeous music with lyrics as haunting as those. However, it shows the unfiltered artistic integrity of Critterthing and especially Claire in her unflinching portrayal of this vile but nonfiction persona.
We reckon with this brutal reality in the song “Joy,” in which Claire belts, “I ain't scared to die, but I'm terrified to say goodbye to my friends not knowing I am.” She sings this over and over at the end of the song, in a mantra style similar to, “I’m a threat to your convenience,” but it’s shouted out like a confession. In “Sticks” we’re shown the opposite of what Claire represents, but on “Joy” we get a view into the genuine trauma of fearing for your friends’ lives — how one’s own death one cannot even feel fear from, but when it comes to the life of a loved one, the thought of saying goodbye without knowing it’s a final goodbye one feels “terrified.” It’s the second to last track on the album, but the final song with lyrics. So, we’re left to ponder this concept throughout the last song, the instrumental “Song of Healing.”
With an album like Save Room, Critterthing takes you into an uncensored view of the strength, weakness, courage, fear, struggle, and triumph that you can’t extricate from a genuine queer and trans experience. While that experience may not be universal in the truest sense, Critterthing makes themselves a threat to the convenience of our own comfort in the bliss that comes from ignorance to these issues that so many queer and trans people face. But that becomes a form of liberation, and a reminder to continue the struggle and survive because “in the dark someone else might depend on your light.”
Follow Critterthing on Instagram and make sure to check out the Ear Coffee Youtube channel on December 12th, 19th, and 26th for their Ear Coffee Live performances.
