DownloadStephin Merritt's romantic troubles haven't calmed down in the last decade or so, but at least he's better at self-medication. On 1995's underrated Get Lost, "all the dope in New York" wasn't enough to dry his pillow, but now a stiff drink or ten seems to do the trick. So that's, um, progress? If it's ground that's he's covered before lyrically (a hazard of dropping sixty-nine tracks in one sitting), at least "Too Drunk to Dream" is typically clever. Listing the knife-sharp bons mots would take a full three minutes, but my favorite would have to be the eminently logical, "I know you think I'm insane/ I know it's not appealing/ but until I'm feeling no pain/ guess what I am feeling?"
Musically, the track is a prime example of Distortion's commitment to its title. Though the structure fits into the familiar three-minute pop song sung with a sock-hop-lilt mold, a spoonful of white noise helps the sugar go down. I'd trot out the token Jesus and Mary Chain comparison, but the Reids were never this witty.
We've all been there, but this song sort of makes me think it should be on some 60 or 70s movie based sound track.