Mikey Joseph O'Connor - The Love is Letting Go of Fear EP

Back again and on a prolific streak of songwriting, friend of the blog and It's A Thing! co-host Mikey Joseph O'Connor brings us a softer, gentler, happier, and even more honest set of song with The Love is Letting Go of Fear EP. What's different from The Day I Stopped All This? I mean, what could Mikey have possibly done to top the earnest, honest, tragic last love letter of last Autumn's EP? You probably think I'm building this up too much. You're probably right. At least in a sense. The answer to the question, the what's different question, is everything. On Love is Letting Go, O'Connor isn't merely working on letting go of fear, as the title might suggest. He's not even in the throws of a clear philosophical conundrum. See that wayside over there? Yeah, that one? Well, that's where all of Mikey's anger and frustration and disappointment seems to have fallen. The anguish inherent to The Day I Stopped All This is no more, and this new EP is very different kind of love letter.

This love letter is about amends, first. "Dear Aaron and Sarah... Sorry" is a brilliantly open-hearted, fully culpable and responsible song. It's a song that apologizes with its title, and clarifies that apology with its lyrics, its music and its frankness. It's a song about abuses. (And there's some continuing distinct Replacements vibe in there.) And having learned to transcend them. This is also a love letter about falling in love. "Earthquake Weather" is that song. O'Connor croons over a jaunty guitar, piano and bass composition about finding true love and remarking on the insignificant moments, the little ones, that become so huge when romance is attached. Love is restorative here. In a very prevent-the-city-from-shaking-apart way. Here's a video of it. LIVE!


Mikey Joseph O'Connor - Earthquake Weather from Mikey Joseph O'Connor on Vimeo.

It's a love letter crying, "It's us against the WORLD and all the evils therein." The darker "The Lions Den" is a song about breaking apart, but not because of the internal, human conflicts that come with love cast asunder by its parts. Instead, it's a song about an outside force, something bigger and darker and more indomitable, that seems ready to swallow both the song's protagonist and his subject of rescue. It's also one of the most brilliantly composed songs O'Connor has ever created. And it's a love letter about pure joy and thanks. "The One Good Thing" closes the set with an incredibly open and vulnerable character study. It opens with the stellar, inspiring lines, "My dreams go bad because I still can't trust myself/ And my dreams come back because of my mental health." It's a fucking incredible track too, with a solid piano riff, a ripping guitar solo, and a gorgeous refrain "You're given to me like a song that's on the radio."

In short, and in long, The Love is Letting Go of Fear EP is spectacular. Listen to it. You can check it out exclusively through Mikey's ReverbNation page.