For decades, Bill Callahan has been a singular voice of indie music whether under the moniker Smog or since he switched to using his own name. Through vivid lyrics, his storytelling and noted voice has been an inspiration and this winter, he'll return with another album to add to his legacy. As you may guess from the title, it seems like the newest record from Callahan will focus more on aging than his past work. The record, entitled My Days of 58, appears to have been written during that specific period of his life (he turned 59 this year so it would be fitting at the very least) and the lead single, "The Man I'm Supposed to Be" certainly reflects on a lot of the themes you'd expect from someone who is pondering this stage of life. In the press release, Callahan has stated that his intentions for this record were to be "a living room album," but not in the sense of production values, but rather the intimacy that setting can provide, the stories shared there, and the conversations had in that type of space. Immediately, you may notice that this is indeed a more rocking sound than you might expect from Callahan, again bucking the notion that this could be more of a lo-fi style, but the lyrics remain as marvelous as ever. It's a striking song and the words hit hard, capturing the moods of aging with the directness Callahan leads with so well. "I've been living too long in my head / Not loving you enough in our bed / From now on I start living my life / As if the next day I'll be dead / Next day I'll be dead." It's haunting, yet honest, and captures the thoughts I'm sure many of us have as we get older. Things won't last forever. People grow old and we all change. For now, however, we still have the same old Bill Callahan, here to comfort us even as he leans into some of our most frightening realizations. He's a real one, always has been, and at least for now, always will be.
My Days of 58 is out February 27.
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