Best Song: Martin Cizmar might favor "Truckstop Urinal," which is plenty a fine song, but I have to go with "Nothing To Prove." Don't get me wrong -- there are a lot of solid songs on this album, and "Nothing To Prove" is really just a personal choice. It features the band's fantastic organ, is under 2:30 long and is actually quite a complex offering. There's not a lot of room to really flesh out a punk song -- to find that wall of sound and really drive home the song's hidden metaphors. "Nothing To Prove" is simple, yet it follows a rather unique song structure. As well, the band has nothing to prove, so why the hell not let everyone know?
Worst Song: There really is no worst song on this album. There's no smarmy, heartfelt love song that throws a wrench in the album's cohesiveness. That's not to say that there's no substance to The Butchers' music. They just realized such a song would seem out of place and, honestly, pretty trite on their album. The longest song on the album -- the titular "Hard To Be Human" -- is five seconds short of three minutes, so there's no freakout/funk jam to make listeners scratch their collective heads. The symmetry, the momentum, the flow of the album -- all of it is on point.
Suggestions: I see that the band's name comes from the nickname of Ed Gein, a notorious murderer and grave-robber who fashioned trophies out of his victims' bones and skin who was best known as the Butcher of Plainfield. When I first got the album and saw that name, The Plainfield Butchers, I must admit I wasn't jumping with joy at the prospect of what was to come. I half-expected some countrified rock music. Now that I have heard the band's music and I know the band's name comes from a severely fucked up individual, I kinda like it. What better way to celebrate, if you will, the life of Ed Gein than to name your band The Plainfield Butchers?
Grade: A
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