Book of James

Billy McCarthy and Augustines have been through a lot. The album Rise Ye Sunken Ships draws on inspiration from the untimely deaths of McCarthy's mother and brother. Rise is not a sad album though. It does contain heavy material and some sad lyrics, but the music speaks a different story. If you listen to the song "Book of James" it tells a story. It tells a sad story, but the music creates a feeling of hope in the listener. The song seems to be on the neverending rise, like it is building and building. The best part is that it does not stop the song just ends.

The story being told is complex and deep. It is about the McCarthy's brother James who committed suicide. It is hard to tell who the speaker is. The easy answer is McCarthy talking about his brothers last days and how he is coping with the loss of his brother.The harder more complex answer is that the speaker is James talking about Bill retracing James' steps before his death in order to come to terms with the loss he has suffered.

The audience is most likely James listening to his brother from somewhere our mind cannot comprehend. The occasion is soon after James' death.

What a listener should take away from the song is that you cannot just give up. You cannot hold a grudge. You cannot let sadness and grief overcome you. McCarthy writes, "And all these words can all get spoken/ Just know we tried/ and you're forgiven" to let James know that he knows it was not James' fault.  McCarthy also lets James know he loves him when he says, "He stood there in his boots unable to/ Move/ And I came here to tell you that I love / You/." McCarthy is looking for closure and reassuring James that there is no bad blood between them.

The song developes the theme through the story telling but aslo great personification and imagery. The song starts with a metaphor for James. James is described as "a crimson beating heart" whose "snow white skin" is being burned by the sun. I think the "snow white skin" is a reference to James drug use and his poor health. James starts the story in a park. He is at peace, when he starts thinking about bad things. McCarthy says that "Storm clouds began to form in his head." He goes on to say, "And the howling of hardship and heartache/Kneeled and grinned in his face." McCarthy uses personification and diction. The personifaction makes the hardship feel human. The diction makes everything so much more vivid. The word "grinned" seems so  much more sneaky and deceptive then smiled. The story continues with James walking near "the 99 cent stores and garbage in the yards." This is probably where he used or bought drugs and it is the last of James story we hear. There is sort of an upside to this verse. It talks about how James was singing about the "crickets and backroads" where he and his brother used to play. This means that there was a chance that James was thinking aobut his brother at that time and he was not doing this to himself because he wanted to but because he could not stop.

McCarthy then uses the chorus to talk about how he feels that his brother is gone. McCarthy describes how he coped with his brother's death when he said, "Cause I tried the bible, tried the bottle,/ Tried the needle, tried to love people/ And in the end there ain't much to say." This line shows how vulnerable McCarthy was but how he still pushed on. He did not let the depression overcome him and he forgave his brother.

Augustines are brilliant and if you took the time to listen to this song then I reccommend you take  few more minutes and check out a few more less deep songs like "Cruel City."