“A Perfect Voice" by The Classic Crime, Saturday, June 25, 2022
The third record from The Classic Crime, Vagabonds, was the last record of the band on Tooth & Nail Records. The Classic Crime has had ups and downs in their success. Their first album, Albatros, was mis-marketed on iTunes in the genre of Christian Rock, something that the band and their A&R team had fought prior to the album's release. However, the band was ultimately associated with the genre because of their record label. Furthermore, the first record's reviews were mixed to poor. But the band's follow up, The Silver Cord, was well-received, especially as a Christian Rock album.
I'M COUNTING ON GRACE. Vagabonds didn't have the same CCM appeal that The Silver Cord had. Though the album had three singles on Christian Rock radio, the last of which was today's song "A Perfect Voice," the album's opener, the album didn't appeal much to the band's target secular Warped Tour scene. With the apparent commercial failure and the changes in the music industry, the band went independent following Vagabonds, with lead singer Matt MacDonald taking the tighter reins on the band's creative direction and the bandmates focusing on limited
tour and performing on the records. The result was a crowd-funded fourth record,
Phoenix complete with an instrumental version of the album. The band has
continued to follow a DIY model to this day. And while they may not have sustained
the level of success they had back in 2008 with their sophomore record,
MacDonald's adaptation in the long haul is admirable.
I MAY NOT EVER SEE A DIME, BUT I’LL BE FINE. The lyrics on Vagabonds talk about the vagrant state of the poor--scoundrels, knaves, and vagabonds who have either sworn off society or have been condemned by society to wander the cities either panhandling or begging "on the corner with a cup somewhere." For MacDonald on this record, it's a romantic notion that the artist starves for his craft. And in the post-2008 fall out of the financial crisis, many bands were in dire financial need. MacDonald sees himself as a potential vagabond in the future--a future that seems eerily familiar to a post-Covid world. "A Perfect Voice" opens the album with a sunny optimism that despite the lead singer's lack of the best voice in the world, he will "sing at the top of [his] lungs / 'till [his] days are done." This song is encouraging me to look at the opportunities I have and take a chance. So often I'm paralyzed by the fear of what might happen and I fear what will change if I'm actually successful. I'm reminded of the "hustling" intensity that Stephen Christian talks about in interviews and how he "shut up and actually tr[ied]." Maybe the worst decision I ever made and will always regret was not pursuing music professionally. But I've got to move on from that.
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