JAM THE TRACKS WHILE YOU READ
"GREAT ADD YOU SAUCY MINX" - BEN
SAINT AUBIN
WITHOUT MY QUEEN
MAY 15TH, 2023
Saint Aubin of Indianapolis has wit, a sense of humor, an endearing self-deprecating style, and a bullshit callout mentality of the music industry and pop culture via his YouTube channel. He understands music is more than passion. And that with any passion project there is an undercurrent of reality, both in how art is performed and presented.
And in Saint Aubin’s latest release he presents a six song cycle, a eulogy if you will, where he tries to work out the fears and frustrations, love and loss, of a complicated relationship with his late mother. The title track presents the reality that he must now navigate the world anew. Alone. “A black sheep in the family tree / And I don’t belong without my queen.” And he sings this with a beautiful voice over a lone fuzzed out guitar line for the first minute. Then the drums hit. The chorus comes. Hooks are fully in the skin. All with a spare production. So when “Anchors Break” arrives I wasn’t expecting the badass brilliance of an almost Imagine Dragons track replete with a serious beat drop. There are lush synths and tinkling of keys behind the bombast and all the while Saint Aubin sings: “Wishing, I could take it back / Missing, my last chance.”
“Hey Ma” opens with a few hip hop rhymes sounding like Slug of Atmosphere. There’s a looped and vocoded background vocal that repeatedly asks: “Do I need you?” which is followed by the thought that he’s no pastor but “closer to a bastard.” It’s inventive and intricate and incisive and a definite highlight. This EP dives into the deep end of feelings and regrets. It’s a cathartic release. Questions are asked of life and death. Answers are not necessarily found. But it’s the asking that allows one to move forward.
- Trent Ryan Smith