"Untitled" byPaper Route, Tuesday, January 19, 2021
I caught Paper Route playing one afternoon at the Gallery stage at Cornerstone. Many bands from Cornerstone don't stick around for long, but I could tell that this band had something very special. They played multiple instruments, but yet, their music didn't sound like it was trying too hard to be creative. It sounded like pop music. I bought their first EP which came in a paper bag. The songs were all about Christmas, but none of the songs were familiar Christmas songs. I began following the band's career. All of their releases were delayed. First the Are We All Forgotten EP, followed by their first major label debut LP Absence, the departure of vocalist/guitarist Andy Smith, tours with Paramore and Anberlin, the delay of their second, poppier The Peace of Wild Things, an EP called Thank God the Year Is Finally Over, some random covers of Lorde and Destiny's Child, and then their final work, Real Emotion, released on September 23, 2016.
BORROW HOPE TO UNDERSTAND. With just a superficial listen to this band, you could mistake them for Coldplay or OneRepublic, and they could get lost in your library. However, seeing them grow as a band and seeing JT Daly take the reins as the frontman of this group of musicians, was quite a journey. Looking perhaps a little drunk as he sings from the heart about what you can tell are very painful issues of love, the loss of love, and misunderstandings, you can't help but wonder what the hell is going on? At concerts I heard (different years, mind you) "this was the hardest year of our lives." And the fidelity to their art, I always found fascinating--recording their albums in Southern mansions around Nashville.
A GUIDING LIGHT. It feels like the storm came after they recorded this album. 2016 was a turbulent year. Brexit, Trump's election, the Pulse shooting. Followed by a turbulent 2017. Families were divided by politics in the best case scenarios. By the time we got to 2020 we were certainly flooded. Rather than finish with a point, I will end with a discussion. To whom is it that you need to profess your love? At what point do you realize that it's time to stop playing and settle down? How have our loved ones helped us through the most recent storms? Have we told them how much we've appreciated it? We may not survive every storm. We borrow hope until the bank is closed. It's most important to let our loved ones know how much they mean to us.
Here's a live performance, which is slightly better than the studio recording because you can see the energy and raw emotion:
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