Album Review: Garrett Jamieson & Sprattacus - Born Crying, Die Laughing

Born Crying, Die Laughing album art by Montina Art

“While these guys play ‘Thieving Magpie,’ I’m gonna be an anxious clown,” Garrett Jamieson offers mid-way through Born Crying, Die Laughing. He then performs a two-minute bit of physical comedy you cannot see on this live recording — from a 2019 show at Toronto’s now-shuttered The Underground — while the band performs a coy instrumental you’ll almost certainly recognize.

That sort of unhinged, mischievous energy permeates through Born Crying, Die Laughing, a mix of music and stand-up that heightens both with the addition of the other. Jamieson’s comedy bends to the sounds, while the band is in on the joke.

On the comic side of things, Jamieson rattles through clever, darkly absurd riffs with wild energy. He takes a shotgun approach, filling his set with plenty of one, two and three liners. They don’t all land — he tosses out a sizable ratio of groaners — but enough do to keep the momentum rolling between higher concept bits.

And those higher concept bits are great: “Dad Song” is a wandering road ballad of flawed father-son masculinity, while “Image of God” retells the biblical creation of the universe through an eclectic, weed-addled lens.

Sprattacus the band — Ryan Spratt, Mike Murray, Jen Pos, and Josh Park, plus saxophonist Savic Panylyk and trumpeter Justin See for the final few songs — are uniformly excellent, effortlessly shifting styles as they go. From radio pop to surf rock, polka to new age: their backing gives Jamieson’s jokes a new depth of tone, and help amplify even his weirdest material. The spacey oscillations they conjure in “Multiverse” gives perfect backing to a spiralling time travel joke, while the headbanger riffage that ends “Weed Laws” underscores the joke in a way that words alone would fail to do. 

It’s a curious partnership that Garrett Jamieson and Sprattacus have found in each other, but one that very much works in both its melodies and its mirth.

Born Crying, Die Laughing was released December 18, 2020 on Comedy Records.
Listen to it here.