About to Choke

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About to Choke

Studio album by Vic Chesnutt
Released	November 12, 1996
Genre	Folk-rock
Length	45:24
Label	Capitol
All Music Guide link
Vic Chesnutt chronology
Is the Actor Happy (1995)	About to Choke (1996)	The Salesman and Bernadette (1998)

About to Choke is a 1996 album from Vic Chesnutt. About to Choke stands above all Chesnutt's previous albums by being very diverse in musical styles, giving the album many different textures, and weaving them together skillfully. The album starts with a slow meandering song called 'Myrtle', in which Chesnutt gives us an introspective look at himself. It's notable while most of the other songs on this album are fictional stories of other people and places, 'Myrtle' is very much about the singer's own experience. The second song is 'New Town', which is exactly as the title says, a pastoral look at a slice of life of the various inhabitants of a growing small town. The third song is a swaggering grooving rocker called 'Ladle' - a song basically telling an ex-lover that the singer is keeping an eye on her. Next is 'Tarragon' - a very short peek at having a crush on a stranger. The fifth song is called 'Swelters' - a little dreamy rhyming song describing various aspects of the technical side of recording music. Next is a minute long experimental piece called '(It's No Secret) Satisfaction', which sounds like it could have been recorded by Beck. The only words, repeated over and over are "Trapped in a plane in the mouth of a tunnel", while the music is a mix of a drumbeat, synthesizer, and odd vocalized sounds by Chesnutt. This song runs straight into the song "Little Vacation", which has a nice walking bass line under a lyric pleading to a lover that he wants to have a talk about their relationship - comparing the discussion to a formal council meeting. The second half of the album starts with 'Degenerate', which has a complex lyric that more gives a certain feeling, rather that being about a certain subject. The next song is 'Hot Seat' which is a song about trying to overcome addiction. The 10th song is 'Giant Sands' another song with impenetrable meaning to the lyrics. The next to last song is 'Threads', a song with a matching sense of a mystical lyric and mystical musical style. The final song is 'See You Around', a long musical good-bye letter to an apparently ex-friend. As the album closes, a brief reprise of 'Myrtle' drifts in and out, giving a nice bookend to unify the album as a whole.