Review Summary: Bruce Haack is miserable and he isn’t afraid to expressively show it.
Bruce Haack has an impressive history for someone who’s mainly famous for writing children’s music. Between the years of 1955-1969 Haack had invented 4 different electronic keyboards, released 5 children’s albums, made various commercial jingles, appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and innovated within the realm of electronic pop music. However, by 1970, Haack was sick of his whimsical and marketable reputation and wanted to create something he felt could be taken seriously. His 1970 album, The Electric Lucifer, was a psychedelic influenced synth record with religious and wartime undertones and was met with a decent amount of acclaim, but his reputation as a child friendly whimsical artist stuck. He tried again with 1971’s Together, this time under the pseudonym Jackpine Savage, but the album was largely ignored. He then went back to creating children’s albums -his only ones that people would widely appreciate. It wasn’t until 1978 when he tried again with his darkest and most adult album yet, Haackula. Disappointingly to him, it was deemed so dark that the label he was on refused to release it. It was only available through bootleg releases until 2008 -which is unfortunate since Haack died in 1988, so he never lived to see its release.
How exactly is Haackula so dark that a 1978 record label refused to release it? With themes that claim human existence is pointless bullshit, depict men as selfish liars by nature, and detail murderous death machines that are unstoppable as the human race’s fault, it’s easy to see that Haack’s intentions were primarily to show his bitter, depressed, and defeated viewpoint to the world. No solutions, no light, just misery. It's crazy to believe this man once made cheery children’s music. It’s like he failed to see that all of this misery was just a reflection of his current state: feeling pigeonholed into a role he hated and being kept from living his intended dream. With all of that said: unless you mind extreme cynicism, there’s really nothing “bad” about his lyricism. His cynicism may be over the top, but it isn't arbitrary or poorly represented -quite the opposite actually. In fact, comparing human existence to a disgusting and pointless blow job is a genuinely creative way of saying “life sucks.” The double entendre of “lie back” -referring to both relaxing and defensive deception- is also impressive.
Even musically the album is depressing. Most of the synths on the album are hazy and play low notes like black thunderous clouds raining on life’s picnic. It’s honestly amazing how palpable Haack’s emotions are even in the instrumental. His vocals are mostly gloomy whispers and sour talk-singing -making the album feel ridiculous like one big tantrum. Yet again, this is only a bad thing if you believe that extreme negativity isn’t good in music. Since it was Haack’s intention to make a depressing album that bursts with cynicism, he actually did a wonderful job composing appropriate instrumentation. The music is so stylistically thematic of depression that it ends up being incredibly engaging.
I won’t lie though: this album makes me feel kind of awful. His disdain is so sincere that the album isn't even edgy, just depressing (which makes it have the potential to be relatable.) If you hate the human race, or want to experience the music of someone who does, this is the album for you.
Album highlights: “Lie Back,” “Blow Job,” “Death Machine”
