Who loves the Sheila Divine? “Hum” is a perfect rock song. Lots of dynamics. Disparate melodic passages to keep things interesting and shift the mood.
I admire the way lead singer Aaron Perrino literally has two voices. The lyrics hit me in the feels, too. One of my faves is the refrain, “God don’t make the laws,” which of course is true when it comes to incomprehensible civic ordinances.
As a fan of nuance and ambiguity, I often relish lyrics as well as poetry that don’t make sense, but something about them makes sense. You know what I mean. It’s like when the Beatles sing something like, “She’s well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand/Like a lizard on a window pane/The man in the crowd with the multicolored mirrors on his hobnail boots/Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime/A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust.”
I dig it when Perrino says, “I’m the heavyweight/And I don’t know why/I’ve got the sixth sense to make the girls cry. The Sheila Divine’s “Like a Criminal,” off their 1999 album New Parade,” is also a revelation. The band emerged from Boston, bye the bye.
—Sarah Torribio
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