PREMIERE | Proper Nouns, 'Feel Free'
Spencer Compton of Proper Nouns live; photographed by Micah E. Wood.
The pursuit of liberty and meaning beyond the labels and contrivances created by society’s institutional and ideological malpractice. This is the underlying motif of Baltimore artist Spencer Compton's debut album Feel Free under the moniker of Proper Nouns. Working with the creative brass of engineer J. Robbins and Jonathan Schenke, Compton presents a collection of realized power chord anthems that blend personal and global narratives that demand for a more inclusive and representative view of the individual. Drawing from his own experiences of living with a unique brain lesion that was subject to medical maltreatments, surgeries and the like as preventive measures that proved to be unnecessary and harmful. From corresponding bouts with memory loss, epilepsy and the haunting feeling of being subjected to what he refers to as an institutional scam; Spencer Compton's big Proper Nouns debut is the sound of breaking out of a synthetic medical grade chrysalis in an accelerated drive to find self-actualization, meaning and the feeling of being that exists outside of the hypothetical and experimental constructs of conjecture that the fallible world of organized corporate bodies often mistake for universal altruisms.
"Known Unknowns" lends itself to the abandon of uncertainty that traverses the wild and challenging routes to unspecified destinations, keeping that power pop sentiment shining with a sweet sincerity on the title track “Feel Free”, right before dialing the momentum back up on the introspective survey of incomplete exchanges "Situation Undone". Spencer delivers both chords and lyrical schematics in original and idiosyncratic patterns and self-styled structures that keep the audience connected along the album's trajectory of unpredictable, heartwarming intrigue on tracks like the endearing "Emma" to the forward fist clenched consciousness of "Borrowing from the Future". Notions on the states of the future, present and past permeate the record like the cryptic soul baring slow jam "Twenty Teen", to examining the factory made process of manufactured fear and paranoia products with electrified rapid rhythms on "Terror By the Book".
"Redeeming Qualities" surveys with a healthy skepticism the criteria of character in the modern age of chaos, delving into the zones and places beyond the cartographer's scope with "Nowhereland", to turning back the clock to the world we once knew before the new millennium hype of "Y2K" and striving to understand society's hesitation toward humanity and empathy on the action anthem, "Fear to Care". Compton makes a statement about living life in the present tense in a post hoc principled world on "Post-Everything", the epic sunset disappearing act of light with "West of the Hill", concluding with the sparse electric guitar epilogue that reaches for an elusive identity outside of the contrivances of schisms and "Isms". Proper Nouns' Feel Free is a song cycle ode to the uniqueness of individuality and liberty in a world of distortions, interruptions, intrusions and distractions from the reality of ourselves, others and the organic nature of our shared universes.
Proper Nouns performing live (pre-pandemic); photographed by Micah E. Wood.
Spencer Compton of Proper Nouns shared some exclusive words on the debut album Feel Free:
The underlying idea in Feel Free is pushing back against the commodification of virtually everything. I didn’t realize it while writing and recording, but all of the songs talk in some way or another about commodity culture and fetishism; whether it be terrorism, healthcare, history, cell phones, identity, or what the plutocrats prescribe to us as real politics.
Keeping it proper with Proper Nouns; press photo courtesy of Micah E. Wood.
And more autobiographically, this album was me walking a tedious tightrope of talking about things not as legible or common as life experiences often are, while (hopefully) not for a second letting that fall into a self-exceptionalizing livejournal post. It’s all posing that question though: what do we do when there’s no on-hand tried-and-true referent, blueprint or lexicon to translate what’s real for maximal affirmation and empathy? What about all the suboptimal remainders, and, maybe more importantly, how do we not let that question be commodified like everything else?
Proper Nouns debut album Feel Free will be available April 23 via Phone Booth Records with a day of release live stream performance via the Creative Alliance. For tickets go here.
Cover art for Feel Free courtesy of Proper Nouns.