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The Obelisk

from The Red Brain by Wax Mannequin

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1.20 CAD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Wax Mannequin - The Red Brain - Album Guide

    The Red Brain begins with “The Obelisk,” as Adeney’s deep, inviting voice is trailed by the steady strum of a guitar, jangling riffs, and the warm glow of an organ. Struggling with a Brian Wilson-esque feeling of not being made for the times, he sings about how “we turn a blind eye to looming existential threats in order to maintain chaotic, quasi-functional
    domesticity.” In its choruses, the song travels to a far-distant future where obelisks are constructed to laugh at humanity’s plights, highlighting Wax Mannequin’s fantastical, sci-fi world building.

    ”Wrong About You” is inspired by Adeney’s experiences as a student and elementary school teacher of language, arts, and drama. Barreling ahead with a soaring guitar solo, triumphant piano melody, and chorus of multi-tracked vocals, he turns his focus onto a student that is alienated for not appearing to thrive. Yet once the child returns home, they are able
    to deftly model the consciousness of those around them using metal wires found on the floor. “Sick Boy” (originally written by Raghu Lokanathan) completes this thematic trifecta with Adeney’s additional lyrics about “kids, classrooms, and noticing our mistakes a bit too late.”

    The album embraces a wide range of stylistic forms with the stately strings of “The Red Brain” colliding with the corrosive folk of “Even Then,” where Wax Mannequin sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel with an extra dose of psychedelic fuzz. “Reasons We Came” turns its spotlight on the tumbling drum fills of percussionist Bradford Lambert, as its rhythmically
    chanted lyrics discuss the action and energy needed during times of transition, warning how blind optimism can cloud our vision. “Love Is A Hunter” is Adeney’s dramatic cover of a song by Coax Records founder Rae Spoon, while “Things to Do With Rage” reworks an empowering anthem about channelling frustration into constructive acts of creativity, originally appearing on Wax Mannequin’s debut album 23 years ago.

    “Not The Worst It Gets” drops Adeney’s electronically processed vocals into a sparse pool of echoing pianos and subaquatic beats. While closing the album with a message of hope, it maintains the melancholy realism at the heart of his lyrics. “For me, the end of a depressive cycle is tranquillity,” he says. “Concepts that were incredibly burdensome become
    objects you can set down and contemplate before they pass into dust.” Yet in moments like these when we are bogged down by our own problems, he reminds us how easy it is to ignore the challenges of everyone else around us. “There’s a peaceful numbness at the end of that turmoil,” says Adeney. “Eventually you deny your own pain and the pain of others,
    so there’s a bitter tranquillity in that.”

    - Jesse Locke

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Red Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
    ships out within 5 days

      $14 CAD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Wax Mannequin - The Red Brain - Album Guide

    The Red Brain begins with “The Obelisk,” as Adeney’s deep, inviting voice is trailed by the steady strum of a guitar, jangling riffs, and the warm glow of an organ. Struggling with a Brian Wilson-esque feeling of not being made for the times, he sings about how “we turn a blind eye to looming existential threats in order to maintain chaotic, quasi-functional
    domesticity.” In its choruses, the song travels to a far-distant future where obelisks are constructed to laugh at humanity’s plights, highlighting Wax Mannequin’s fantastical, sci-fi world building.

    ”Wrong About You” is inspired by Adeney’s experiences as a student and elementary school teacher of language, arts, and drama. Barreling ahead with a soaring guitar solo, triumphant piano melody, and chorus of multi-tracked vocals, he turns his focus onto a student that is alienated for not appearing to thrive. Yet once the child returns home, they are able
    to deftly model the consciousness of those around them using metal wires found on the floor. “Sick Boy” (originally written by Raghu Lokanathan) completes this thematic trifecta with Adeney’s additional lyrics about “kids, classrooms, and noticing our mistakes a bit too late.”

    The album embraces a wide range of stylistic forms with the stately strings of “The Red Brain” colliding with the corrosive folk of “Even Then,” where Wax Mannequin sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel with an extra dose of psychedelic fuzz. “Reasons We Came” turns its spotlight on the tumbling drum fills of percussionist Bradford Lambert, as its rhythmically
    chanted lyrics discuss the action and energy needed during times of transition, warning how blind optimism can cloud our vision. “Love Is A Hunter” is Adeney’s dramatic cover of a song by Coax Records founder Rae Spoon, while “Things to Do With Rage” reworks an empowering anthem about channelling frustration into constructive acts of creativity, originally appearing on Wax Mannequin’s debut album 23 years ago.

    “Not The Worst It Gets” drops Adeney’s electronically processed vocals into a sparse pool of echoing pianos and subaquatic beats. While closing the album with a message of hope, it maintains the melancholy realism at the heart of his lyrics. “For me, the end of a depressive cycle is tranquillity,” he says. “Concepts that were incredibly burdensome become
    objects you can set down and contemplate before they pass into dust.” Yet in moments like these when we are bogged down by our own problems, he reminds us how easy it is to ignore the challenges of everyone else around us. “There’s a peaceful numbness at the end of that turmoil,” says Adeney. “Eventually you deny your own pain and the pain of others,
    so there’s a bitter tranquillity in that.”

    - Jesse Locke

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Red Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
    ships out within 5 days

      $25 CAD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    10
    releases

    Get all 10 Wax Mannequin releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Red Brain, The Obelisk (single version), No One Ever Dies (Free Download), Have A New Name, No Safe Home, Saxon, Orchard & Ire, The Price, and 2 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $56.10 CAD or more (15% OFF)

     

lyrics

THE OBELISK

Out in the world you’ve got to dance it all the time, most of the time
Otherwise, you’re super rude and ostracized, you're ostracized
How the world you supposed to dance it all the time, all the time?
When you got heavy metal guts
Will crush a lot of toes
What do you do?

You say we’re the last alive
I say that the seeds and beasts survive
I say that the least of these will writhe
And suffer ‘till they die
Oh, you and I
Should leave a garden where the seeds can rise
Mark it with an obelisk to remind them of
All the stuff we tried

Go about your life where streams of metal wine forever flow
Blow apart our home to find a ruby hid amid the stone
Baby, shut the blinds those pools of scary blood grow, grow and grow
Throw out all the plastic arms and legs
The kids have strewn
Around the cellar floor

You say we’re the last alive
I say that the seeds and beasts survive
I say that the best of these will thrive
They’ll fight until they fly
Oh, you and I
Should leave a message for the beasts to find
Mark it with an obelisk to remind them of
Something from our lives

You say we’re the last alive
I say that the seeds and beasts survive
I say that the best of these will rise
And build into the sky
Oh, you and I
Should leave a message for the Queen to find
Sing it to the tempest, she’ll combine
All the stuff we tried
And exactly how we died

credits

from The Red Brain, track released April 14, 2023
The Obelisk
Vocals, guitar - Wax Mannequin
Guitar, Organ, Piano - Corwin Fox
Drums - Sean Warren
Bass - Evelyn Charlotte Joe
Additional engineering by David Copper

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Wax Mannequin Hamilton, Ontario

Adeney's music veers from scrappy prog oddness and distressed folk to absurdist stadium metal, all with a dark humour that borders on outright Dadaism.
Beneath the unsettling imagery and musical left turns there is a steady questioning of life’s inherent strangeness and his own neuro-divergent experience.
He has appeared on thousands of pub, gallery and festival stages worldwide.
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