BY: DIGITAL WAX MEDIA STAFF

 

 

Matt Bohannon of the Bohannons released a new single, “On the Moon with a Cigarette” on Tuesday. The track serves as the second single from the singer’s upcoming solo album, Go Back to Your Roots, set for release later this month.

 

Before diving in, I’d like to preface this piece with a disclaimer – per the CDC, smoking and tobacco use can be harmful and potentially even fatal to those who partake. That being said, this song is a whole vibe.

 

The track opens with a laid-back acoustic guitar chord sequence beneath swirling, expressive slide guitar. For a split second it sounds like you’re about to hear Waylon Jennings’ “I’m a Long Way From Home” –  just for a split second though.

 

The mood of the song is established nearly in full right off the bat. I could legitimately listen to this section alone on a loop for hours – as previously alluded, the vibe is palpable.

 

Now, when I describe this track as “an ode to smokes,” it’s because that’s quite literally what it is. Should the listener be waiting around for escalated lyrical stakes or some allegorical double-meaning, they may as we be waiting for an Uber ride home from the moon itself.

 

Seriously – the narrative spun in “On the Moon with a Cigarette” is as follows: the song’s protagonist wakes up and smokes his customary cigarette; at some point during the day he gets so annoyed with folks trying to harsh his mellow that he imagines taking up residence on the moon with a pack of Parliaments just to get his nicotine fix in peace.

 

If this is where the “meaning” begins and ends, however, this writer is left to ruminate on just why myself, a lifelong non-smoker, has rapidly developed such a penchant for the single so as to warrant having played it no fewer the fifty times since its release.

 

While there is really no telling what specifically artists are getting at with their music unless they spell it out themselves, as a listener, I legitimately feel as though I’m hearing the melodic poetry of a dude who just genuinely loves a good pack of smokes.

 

So aside from the cool chords and instrumentation, what exactly is it about this tune that I’m latching onto so adamantly? If my grandmother were still alive this would be her personal national anthem – many a time I heard her say verbatim, “if I can’t smoke cigarettes, I’ll leave.”

 

Still though, grandma loved a lot of music, and I’m not sure that’s a substantial enough “hook” to warrant the type of repeat listening that’s been going on during this snowy Tuesday afternoon.

 

It occurs to me, however that the cigarettes around which the song is centered could theoretically serve as a placeholder for anyone of our collective vices – be they soda, fatty foods, booze, vapes, illegal substances, technology; the list goes on.

 

Despite the dangers of tobacco products which have been heavily issued for decades now – primarily including lung-related issues – the protagonist of “On the Moon with a Cigarette” insists that it’s the lack of smoke being inhaled that “makes it hard for [him] to breathe,” and the act of smoking itself which, “helps [him] breathe at ease.”

 

It’s a valid assertion, as preposterous as it may seem on the surface. Because it isn’t the effect of the smoke on the lungs that’s being assessed here; rather it’s the effect of the smoke – and indeed the nicotine – on the mind. Aside from the literal chemical effects, however, humans naturally gravitate to their own personal comfort rituals and routines that provide a sense of control – albeit briefly – in an increasingly volatile and predictable world.

 

From the time we are born we cling to a pacifier or bottle for a sense of comfort. We then graduate to blankets, toys, films, and television shows. As we get older it becomes other people and different forms of technology; until we reach adulthood, at which point we gain access to legitimate mood-altering substances.

 

As adults, most feel they have earned the right to indulge in whatever it is that brings them peace, even if just for a moment or two. This peace inevitably gets disrupted by the disapproval of others, be it offended strangers, concerned loved ones, or any number of categorical thorns in the proverbial side of an individual just trying to cope with the sheer weight of being alive.

 

While on the face of it, “On the Moon with a Cigarette” is about a dude just wanting to smoke, one might posit that, at its core, it’s a tune about the struggle to maintain one’s hard-earned autonomy in the face of consistent attempted disruptions and impositions with regard to said autonomy.

 

There is truly something to be said about the feeling of not being trusted to manage one’s own narrative. Folks who regularly indulge in cigarettes, Dr. Pepper, Little Debbie Snack cakes, and other such vices are generally well aware of the risk involved. They’re also aware of their own internal mental negotiations in which they have engaged and through which they have determined that any long-term risk associated with their respective vices are justified by the short-term gain, even if the latter isn’t necessarily discernible or consider valid by the folks with which they surround themselves or encounter throughout their respective day-to-day existences..

 

But with the fantastical thematic imagery and palpable themes of escapism, one might suggest of “On the Moon with a Cigarette” that it’s like an “Octopus’s Garden” written by the foremost resident of a trailer park, in the best possible way. But rather than shouting and swimming about the coral that lies beneath the ocean waves, our protagonist here is yucking it up with astronauts and pounding Parliaments on the face of the moon. Given the current musical landscape in which the status quo has become recycled versions of recycled versions of knock-offs of rewrites of recycled versions of songs that weren’t that interesting to begin with, one might argue that the song’s premise is just as good as any.

 

Matt Bohannon’s “On the Moon with a Cigarette” is available to steam now.