Two years passed before A House released their anticipated follow up to On Our Big Fat Merry-Go-Round. Recorded in a hotel dining room on the island of Inishboffin off the west coast of Ireland, I Want Too Much is a darker, more emotionally fraught and angst-driven album than its perky predecessor. Lead singer Dave Couse lyrically wrestles with demons throughout the album, and the accompanying music is equally manic and majestic. The album opens innocently enough with the affable strum of “13 Wonderful Love Songs,” but the baker’s dozen that follow trend more towards wry laments and acidic observations about the state of the world and the crushing disappointment that can come from expecting to much from people. Couse has a knack for composing wicked lyrical jabs and then wrapping them up in catchy melodies that almost make you forget that you’re humming along to a song about isolation, greed, mediocrity or disaffection. It’s pop craftsmanship at its best because, as rock critic Tim Peacock wrote in Sounds magazine when the album came out back in 1990, it’s music that “continually screams for active participation from both head and feet.”
Despite the absence of “13 wonderful love songs,“ I Want Too Much is still a great album. One song, in particular, that feels like it could have been written last week is, “I Think I’m Going Mad.” This timely tune is less about the state of the songwriter’s mental health and more about how the crazy world in which we live causes us to question our own sanity. Faced with a daily barrage of inexplicable idiocy, bad judgement and moral ineptitude, we must constantly re-calculate our perspective of the world as we search for a sliver of sanity to hang on to. I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t asked themselves at least once: “Am I going crazy? Have I lost my fucking mind?” So for all those times that you think you might be — but you know you aren’t, here’s the Happy Medium Song of the Day by A House to help you make it through. (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)