Mike Patton loves baseball, and he loves
The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths. And because he loves doing dumb things, he decided to make a baseball-themed EP with song titles derived from
The Queen Is Dead. And so now we have
The Shift Is Dead, the latest EP from Vista Blue. I approve of this message. It's hard to deny that
The Queen Is Dead is one of the greatest albums ever made. The likelihood that Morrissey would be appalled by this release is icing on the cake. Indeed, the shift is dead. I just wish they'd killed it before it ended Ryan Howard's career.
In addition to the title track, the songs on this EP include "Frankly, Mr. Manfred," "Never Had No Salary Cap Ever," "Bigmouth Strikes Out Again," "The Boy With the Motorola Patch on His Side," and "Some Bats Are Bigger Than Others." As far as I'm concerned, this is just about the most hilarious thing ever. The specific group of people who are super-fans of both The Smiths and American baseball (and would thus get the jokes) is a very exclusive club, but that's what makes this so fun. Even Mick Fletcher, who probably doesn't get all the jokes, is raving about this release from across the pond. There may literally be over 100,000 new songs getting released every day in this modern musical landscape, but these are the first six in history to make baseball puns out of Smiths song titles. As far as doing dumb things goes, this is genius-level stuff from Mike and Mark.
The title track is vintage Vista Blue: a pop-punk song leaning a little more pop than punk. I love that this song is about baseball but not really about baseball. It has a charm that brings to mind the Mr. T. Experience. More in a straight-forward pop-punk vein, "Frankly, Mr. Manfred" finds Mike appealing to The Commissioner of Baseball for a redress of his grievances concerning the "automatic runner" rule in extra innings. I think we can all agree that this is the stupidest rule in the history of professional sports, and I certainly hope Mr. Manfred is listening. Clocking in at just 16 seconds, "Never Had No Salary Cap Ever" makes in a point in a hurry by hilariously repeating the refrain "Hey Dodgers! Defer This!" I would expect nothing less from the band that gave us the classic song "Hey, Bruce Springsteen, What's a Speedball?" "Bigmouth Strikes Out Again" has a great title to live up to and does not disappoint. Chicago Cubs fans are sure to enjoy the pure pop goodness of "The Boy With the Motorola Patch on His Side." "Some Bats Are Bigger Than Others" is a reminder of why I love this band so much. At a time when so many pop-punk bands are writing songs for 40-year-olds, Vista Blue excels at writing songs for eight-year-olds. When it comes to mixing fun, education, and simplicity, this song is about as good as it gets. I will never tire of Vista Blue writing songs about baseball bats.
Even if I make a minor deduction for not including a song referencing the greatest Smiths song of all-time, "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out," I have to give The Shift Is Dead an "A." It possesses the same degree of musical variety that has made Vista Blue's Clear Eyes, Full Hearts one of my favorite albums of the year. And as I prepare to hate-watch the Dodgers in the World Series, the timing of this release could not be any better. This is a delightful little EP for fans of Vista Blue, The Smiths, baseball, and possibly all three. Now excuse me while I go cry in my Festbier over the realization that Kyle Schwarber may have played his last game as a Philadelphia Phillie.
