Music Review: Aaron Lee Tasjan – ‘Get Over it Underdog’

Aaron Lee Tasjan

Get Over It Underdog is the most recent release from the wonderful Aaron Lee Tasjan. A heady mix of invigorating music and intelligent lyrics, this album is Tasjan’s state of the union address. He doesn’t blow smoke out our asses like a politician, instead he regales us with tales of what we’re actually living through.

The album opens with the provocative and witty “Science Fiction”. Its Tasjan’s take on how the new world order under Trump is rewriting not only facts but reality and recreating it in their own image (imaginary idea of reality). “Man control the weather/Man control the women/Man made the system we all have to live in/Man made machines,/Spreading illness within him/Man made machines, putting man out of business.”

While these lines describe how this phenomenon came about, the most telling line occurs in the second verse. In it Tasjan mentions Columbus sailed and proved the world was round, and then wonders how he could “imagine living in a day where well known facts are just argued away”. Can you think of a better description of the drivel that comes out of the current White House on a daily basis?

And that’s just the opening salvo. The second song, “Welcome to the Clown Show”, continues the assault. Here Tasjan likens our society – everything from our celebrity culture to the Tech Bros of silicon valley – to the exaggerated and distorted reality of a circus’s clown show. Overpainted, violent and more than a little frightening, the whole mess is enough to make you want to run away and scream.

“Company men with artificial intelligence/Juggle the fate of the world for the hell of it/…/ Welcome to the clown show/it sucks you into the shadows/As the sun goes down.” Tasjan’s voice   contains an edge of disbelief as he guides us through the perverse circus we not only live in, but in which far too many of us are active participants. 

While Get Over it Underdog has a definite biting and sardonic tone, Tasjan shows he also has a wry sense of humour with his rather gender fluid song “Lydia’s Boots”. The song celebrates the energy and humour of American poet and singer Lydia Lunch. In it Tasjan is watching her perform and wishes for her boots in order to become more like Lydia.

“All I wanna do is dance around in Lydia’s boots/But I’ll never ever look as beautiful as you/She’s got the glamour/ I’m such a loser/I’m so enamoured/She is the coolest/Hey pretty lady can I please borrow your shoes.” While obviously funny and quirky, the song is also quietly subversive. 

In Trump’s America, where a soldier’s worth is based on their testosterone level, and people are fixated on “alpha male” bullshit, for a man to both emulate and want to be like, a woman – well that’s just unAmerican! This is a lovely and irreverent song that will make most people very happy, and will give all the right people bleeding piles.

I suppose the genre conscience among us would call Tasjan’s music Americana, but that wouldn’t even come close to describing the diversity and depth of his music. From punk influenced guitar to intricate arrangements his music is varied and complex. However, no matter what the sound, the music is always the perfect compliment for his lyrics.

Not since Warren Zevon, Randy Newman, and Jackson Brown has a writer been able to accomplish as much with an album as Tasjan has with Get Over it Underdog, If Art is supposed to hold a mirror up to society, than this is great art as it presents with us with a Daliesque mirror view of today’s world. An album for our times.