Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?

Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? is the sound of a very smart person having a very loud existential crisis. It occupies a unique space in the 1997 landscape, eschewing the heavy-handed gloom of post-grunge for a sharper, more articulate brand of cynicism.

The music is driven by a restless energy, where jagged guitar riffs are frequently punctuated by bright, rhythmic piano chords that lend the songs a theatrical, almost vaudevillian flair. It is an album that feels like a conversation with a witty, slightly exhausted friend who has spent too much time reading and not enough time sleeping.