Awkward & Depressed
| Awkward & Depressed | ||||
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| Studio album by Canadian Softball | ||||
| Released | July 28, 2017 | |||
| Recorded | April - June 2017 | |||
| Studio | Franck Studios in Westerville, OH | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Label | Independent | |||
| Producer | Johnny Franck, Jarrod Alonge | |||
| Jarrod Alonge chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Awkward & Depressed | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Collegian | Recommended |
| Punk News |    |
Awkward & Depressed is the third studio album by YouTube comedian Jarrod Alonge, released under the moniker of his fictitious emo band Canadian Softball, on July 28, 2017. The album primarily satirizes and parodies tropes found in the emo genre, primarily from the early 2010s emo revival. The album directly parodies bands such as American Football, Modern Baseball, Hawthorne Heights and Hotel Books. The album also features a cover of "Seven" by Sunny Day Real Estate, a first for Alonge.
Similar to Alonge's previous releases, Awkward & Depressed was crowdfunded through an Indiegogo campaign, which raised over $26,000. The album and crowfunding campaign were announced on March 10 with the release of the "Fund Me" music video. Campaign perks included a signed poster, a CD and digital download of the album, a T-shirt and hat, and a wall flag. While recording the album, Alonge released the EPs Covers, Vol. 1 and No Words Spoken by his non-comedic post-hardcore project CrazyEightyEight.
On July 7, 2017, Alonge released an official trailer for the album, revealing a 13-song track list with a sample for each song. The trailer revealed that the album would contain a cover of Sunny Day Real Estate's "Seven" along with Hotel Books providing guest vocals on the song "Cut the Chord." "Your Validation" was the first song to be released from the album, with the music video premiering on YouTube on July 14. A lyric video for the song "Ohio Is Emo Kids" was released on July 21. The album's second music video, "Great Again," was released on July 27, a day before the album's release.
The album's first track, "Average Joe," mimics emo bands' tendency to write songs about being an "average person" and complaining about being unpopular despite being signed to a record label and having many fans. In reference to the song, Alonge stated that he was "essentially just a poor man's Bert McCracken." The song "Your Validation" is a parody of Modern Baseball with the song's name referencing their song "Your Graduation" from the album You're Gonna Miss It All. The song describes various scene phases a person goes through with the music video showing pictures of fellow YouTube comedian/musician Jared Dines going through a straight edge phase, an EDM phase, and a goth phase, among others. The next song, "Mathematical," is a parody of American Football and math rock with the song featuring many time and tempo changes. The song becomes more chaotic as it goes on before Alonge stops it and refers to it as "musical gibberish." The title of "Great Again" is a reference to Donald Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America great again" from the 2016 presidential election. The song's lyrics glamorize American life in the 1950s, such as graduating from college debt free with a high-paying job, normalized homophobia, and calling the cops on an African-American man for no reason. The track "Mumble" features Alonge unintelligibly mumbling throughout the song with lyrics featuring communist propaganda. "Lysergide" is a shoegaze-influenced song reminiscent of Title Fight with the lyrics describing a drug trip with the vocals becoming distorted near the end.
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