He’s About To Blow: An Ironic Masterpiece

In 1977 the eccentric science fiction author Spider Robinson wrote a turn of phrase that, some four decades later, would inspire the name of The Irons, an up-and-coming alternative/indie rock band with a talent for world-building, philosophical lyricism, and contagious melodies:

If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.

This is a clever kind of theodicy — an attempt to justify why, if God is real, so much evil and suffering exists. Robinson’s answer? God is just being ironic. “Or else,” Robinson continues, “He’s the dumbest designer that ever lived.”

The Irons latest album, He’s About To Blow, hones in on a condensed version of the same question: What causes a person to take that fatal final step? Why do some people choose to leave the world early?

Set aside 30 minutes. Gather the best speakers or headphones you have available to you. And fall into the mysterious, manic world of Vincent Violet in He’s About To Blow.

“Now here’s you a story that’s dramatic a little. Where funny and sad meet right in the middle. And I’ll tell you in song why Vincent was wrong. But first, take a crack at my riddle.“— Vincent Violet (prologue)

“Out of a buddy, he noticed a spy”

In God I Hope My Buddy’s Not a Spy we meet a Vincent consumed by an absurd paranoia that his roommate is a murderous spy. His first words to us are “Early this morning at like five on the dot…” Which is it — “at like five” or “at five on the dot”? He cannot decide or does not know. Both point to the unraveling of his mind.

“And because of his birdy, he let out a sigh”

In That Little Bird of Mine Vincent delves deeper into his imagination, playing a melodic tug of war with a little bird whose beautiful songs are a nuisance Vincent cannot get away from.

What does the little birdy represent? Vincent’s childhood optimism he is now disillusioned by? A former friend or family member? Something else entirely? Whatever or whoever that little bird is, he is doing just fine according to Vincent. He recently went out and bought a new hot air balloon, “flying it higher than most birds do.”

Once again, the emotions here are real for Vincent and, by extension, the listener. But they are based on an absurdity. Birds don’t need hot air balloons to fly! It doesn’t make logical sense, but the emotions involved are given a fresh intensity where one would usually find stale cliches.

“And he learned about envy from watching young Jimmy”

In Why Can’t I Get It Too Vincent wails the stripped down essence of the song behind an acoustic backing for 30 seconds

I can go out and no one even notices my face.
But I walk around hoping that it happens anyways.
I always cry just thinking to myself like:
Why can’t I get it too? Ahh, why can’t I get it too?

before transporting you through a musical portal to an upbeat, active world of ringing guitar strings and cheerful drum beats. This musical shift parallels the content of the lyrics: Vincent’s hilarious comparison of himself to a driven, well-dressed Jimmy.

While Vincent is downtrodden, Jimmy is successful. While Vincent is hopelessly sad, Jimmy is happy. This disparity makes Vincent’s already biting misery cut even deeper, and highlights the role envy paradoxically plays in multiplying our unhappiness.

“Vinny is a broken down guy”

In I Should’ve Stayed Home we hear perhaps the best articulation of social anxiety ever put to music. Vincent builds up his courage to participate in social interactions, but none of his jokes ever seem to land. He can’t quite figure out what he’s supposed to say. Fear and shame paralyze him, but he knows he’s supposed to keep trying and he does. But what is he supposed to do when trial leads to failure over and over and over again? Can anyone blame him for giving up?

“But broken down Vinny didn’t snivel one bit”

In Just Me and Nobody Vincent recedes completely into himself. He vows to trust “just me and nobody”, a phrase which points to the fact that loneliness is not an unnoticeable absence but a very real presence of pain in one’s chest. The help he needs cannot be achieved on his own for it comes from inside him — it is him — and yet, he has nobody else. The acoustic backing and timid lyricism is enough to make anyone cry.

“I’ll just toughen on up,” his words shot from the hip”

In Get Real Tough a mystical transformation presents itself upon the horizon.

With unpronounced whisperings of great disaster near
It all approaches glistening as promise disappears

In one final act of desperation Vincent laments that he just wants to “get real tough”. If only he could endure the hardships of his life a little bit longer. But this attitude of endurance, which is usually endorsed as a solution, is shown here to be a kind of cause for Vincent’s impending dissolution. Nobody, especially Vincent, is self-sufficient. Therefore, this attitude of picking oneself up by one’s own bootstraps only leads to further isolation and helplessness. Things stack up higher and higher, heavier and heavier, longer and longer, until…

“But soon the day came that he inevitably blew”

In He’s About To Blow (the title track of the album) and the epilogue following it, Vincent Violet watches the world pass him by, without being noticed, one last time before “he yelled at the sky and pulled out his hair, until he exploded — vaporized in the air!”

“So, what set him off? Boy, if only I knew”

The mystery of what “made Vincent blow” is left for the listener to interpret and discover. Perhaps it is something we will never quite understand. Why do people have to be so lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in the world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

Possibly it was. Maybe, as Robinson wrote all those years ago, “God is an iron.” But, perhaps, if that is the case, then we too must become irons ourselves so that we may learn to accept the world as it is and even, if we’re lucky, notice its occasional beauty and humor.

He’s About To Blow, with its disorienting soundscapes, creative storytelling, and cathartic, swirling chaos punctuated by moments of profound stillness, helps me to do precisely that and I hope it can do the same for you.

10/10

A monumental achievement.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️