Danny Kiranos, better known as Amigo the Devil, presents his third studio album, Yours until the war is over. The son of a Greek father and Spanish mother, Kiranos adopted a nomadic lifestyle combined with a love of the unusual and tales of the underworld before settling in Austin, Texas. Known for his ability to create haunting songs that combine humor, sharp wit and macabre, his recent works have matured while maintaining the qualities that led to his first hits.
Yours until the war is over was recorded in a bar converted into a studio and was produced by Kiranos. Embracing the idea that songwriting does not have to be autobiographical, the songs combine various themes and themes in compelling ways. With songs about self-destruction, murder during an armed robbery, the loss of a child, and ketamine-induced hallucinations, it's impossible to tell where Kiranos ends and a character begins.
Inspired by legendary artists like Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, Kiranos' quality writing, wordplay, and instrumentation cement his place among them. “I'm Going to Heaven” is a story worthy of Waits in which the narrator witnesses the murder of the love of his life by a crazed individual who then commits suicide. The narrator, unable to accept that the murderer has escaped punishment, commits suicide so that he can inflict punishment on him in the afterlife. The narrator makes a deal with the devil and threatens God in heaven, only to realize that the entire series of events is nothing more than a hallucination.
When I was listening to “Garden of Leaving,” I was completely unprepared for the impact of the track. Streaming the album into my headphones, the power of this track legitimately stopped me in my tracks and forced me to sit down. With a calm voice and accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful and tragic pieces in the Amigo the Devil catalog, in which the narrator and his partner lose a child.
The simplicity and directness of the lyrics add additional weight as Kiranos sings. “The name we chose is everything you kept repeating/The ride home was unbearable/The car seat held nothing but a feeling/Our greatest joy had come into the world/The same day she would leave it/My eyes became a window/You seek solace/Like an animal in winter seeking shelter.”
The album concludes with calm music that accompanies a spoken word piece that is haunting in its narration and honesty. The piece begins with a woman leaving an antique store and commenting on a sign that ends with “life is short.” “She laughed out loud and said, 'I guess it can always be shorter.' The cashier nearby heard and said, 'Yeah, that's what my son thought too.' And then he proved it. “
The narrative evolves into a self-reflective commentary on self-doubt and the struggle for mental health: “Doubt is a siren without any sound. It is a shroud that wraps the mind so tightly that it seems impossible to learn something new, to know something old. The pressure crushes one thought against the other until we can't tell where the handle begins or the blade ends. Compressed. Depressed. They are just words of how toxic blood follows its trail. Is my mind the prey? I don't want to give up. That scares me too. It's hard to be a coward on both ends.”
Danny Kiranos, as Amigo the Devil, has created a masterpiece with this album. The album will be available everywhere on February 23 on Kiranos' label, Liars Club Records. He is on tour with Flogging Molly and will be touring the US this spring/summer with Frank Turner.
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