Bay Area artist Field Medic (real name Kevin Patrick Sullivan) brings to the world a piece of his soul in the form album, Floral Prince (via Run For Cover Records). On the 11-track project, listeners are thrown into topics of love, getting older, and being sad. With his lyrics and acoustic guitar, Field Medic invites the audience into his mind for a half-hour, bearing his soul to them.
The album opens slowly, as Field Medic sings about his own passiveness and patience in hopes of wisdom in “-h-o-u-s-e-k-e-y-z-”. Just as he plucks the strings on his guitar, he simultaneously is plucking the listeners’ heartstrings. Juxtaposed the calm melody of the song, the lyrics provide a platform to repressed anger and fears growing older. Songs “i will not mourn who i was that has gone away,” “HEADCASE,” “older now (it hurts)”, and “before your body goes,” touch on the same melancholic feeling of aging. As Field Medic looks back on his life, he doesn’t know if he’s satisfied with what he has become, but as he sings to himself, “I will not mourn who I was that has gone away.”
Listeners develop a better understanding of the singer’s complex feelings over time passing through the tracks “it’s so lonely being sober” and “TRANQUILIZED.” On the first track, he talks about his past drinking issues, and while he is recovering ensures listeners the fight for sobriety isn’t easy. As he reconnects with himself physically by working out and recharging his sexual appetite he still is very much so physically distant from the world. In the closing track “TRANQUILIZED,” listeners see that despair and loneliness take over him to a point he says he wants to be “tranquilized like a mountain lion.” While the song feels hopeless, Field Medic hasn’t thrown in the table just yet.
Field Medic’s Floral Prince invites listeners into his mind and his heart. The three love songs on the album, “i want you so bad it hurts,” “bundle of hyacinths,” and “talkin johnny & june (your arms around me),” each filled to the brim lyrically with details that allow listeners to feel the love pour out of him. With his vulnerability, listeners are encouraged to be vulnerable themselves and sit in those feelings. Mixed in with the sadness and fears of growing old, there are pockets of happiness and sunshine that remind listeners and Field Medic himself of the joys of life. He touches on the pillars of human nature–fears, desires, hurts–and he does not hold back. Even in the darkest moments, Field Medic continues to push forward and try to live a better life, for it’s the only one he has. He reminds his listeners, “it’ll all be okay. Remember that this is your life, so feeling fine is the better way.”
Take a listen to Field Medic’s Floral Prince out now! Let us know what you think of his new album in the comment below.
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