“I don’t know how I’ll make it through this / I can hold my breath for one more year,” Chris Farren starts off his latest solo record, Doom Singer, out on Polyvinyl Records. It’s a series of songs that, fitting the album title, deal with thoughts of death, depression, and destruction, that even his wit and his charm can’t keep at bay. An integral part of pop punk bands like Anarctigo Vespucci and Fake Problems in the past, his latest offering leans a bit more on Farren’s singer songwriter chops, most songs sporting a thrilling bridge or post-chorus. But it rocks yet: sounding something like if Weezer was fronted by Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan.

“I wanna own the things I rent / I want to love my government / I want the money back I spent / On the weekends I forget.” The power of the songs, beside the super catchy song structure (including lead guitar parts that sometimes recall the best of Weezer’s catalog), is certainly his charming but relatable story telling. “I turn on the charm sometimes / Even when I wanna die, it’s true.” At ten songs, including the wonderfully conceptual last song, called “Statue Song,” about being a giant destination piece who people come to visit but who “they could never hold me in their arms,” he lets us deep into his experience as a human with his fair share of misgivings.

There are relationship songs, like the poppy “Get Over U” or the summery “Only U.” There are songs about his own psyche, like “Doom Singer,” which takes a stab at himself as a song writer for writing “all [my] little words,” in the face of life’s inevitable catastrophes. The success of the record is the way that Farren is sober and silly at the same time, worried about his future, but basically making fun of himself for his worry.

They are songs that could find a home in a musical (of the same name), perhaps, with some of their Beach Boys’ complexity and pop rock appeal. It’s a beautiful album and a gateway into his other bands, who are impressively original as well. A good summer time record, I think.

Order Doom Singer HERE