Yearning for a Dream

Cut Worms’ new self-titled album is a well-curated collection of songs that showcase Max Clarke’s skills at musical performance. Cut Worms plays a series of calm, melancholy pieces which invoke feelings of nostalgia for times when things were simpler while simultaneously lamenting the present.

The album begins with the track “Don’t Fade Out,” which opens with an energized bout of piano playing before shifting to Clarke’s confident guitar-playing. The lyrics carry a different mood, as they lament a relationship that seems to be slipping away.

“Take It And Smile” plays at a slower pace, slipping guitar plucks in between organ and piano tunes. The lyrics again indicate a feeling sadder than the song would indicate, as they worry that “I can’t rely on the promise that it / All be well,” and imply a conversation about very modern social issues. “Ballad Of The Texas King” keeps the pace of the album with guitar strums and snare beats while building a narrative through the intricate lyricism.

“I’ll Never Make It” features a distorted electric guitar in between verses which lament a past love: “I’ll never make it / My life’s not real without you.” The song’s bridge features an emotional, whining guitar solo from Clarke, capturing the feeling of needing but not having a person in one’s life.

The album reaches a comfortable, heartwarming hiatus with “Is It Magic?” as it plucks away at an electric guitar and strums on an acoustic while tapping a tambourine in tune to mushy lyrics as they ask: “How could I make you believe? / In this magic / Feeling I’m having / I’m at the moon / Over you.”

“Let’s Go Out On The Town” picks the pace back up with instrumentals that feel like an upbeat ditty. A casual listen will give a lighthearted feeling as they sing about “dancing all night long,” but a closer listen will reveal a darker narrative about running away from one’s troubles as the singer asks “Ain’t it hard to be alive? / Oh but I don’t wanna die.”

“Living Inside” is an organized track that strikes a nice momentum. The lyrics sing about how friends can come and go, “But for all I see in you, there could be no end.” “Use Your Love! (Right Now)” continues to use a methodical tune that keeps the pace of the track. Clarke’s Paul McCartney-esque vocal performance is present throughout the album, but is extremely noticeable on this track.

The album comes to a close with “Too Bad,” a song which carries palpable discontent as Clarke sings “dreams you never have / go like shadows in the dark” and “like a riptide all control / now is drifting out of reach” as the generally quiet instrumentals pick up for the choruses: “Too bad that we never see it at all.”

Clarke’s Cut Worms is an album with its roots in the past and the present. The musical influences from times past is clear, with performances inspired by the Beatles and with older instruments that see less use in modern music. The lyrics, sometimes abstractly and sometimes directly, reference the hardships present in modern American society. As a collective experience, Cut Worms yearns for those American dreams that we never got to see.