song: "Don't Compare" - The Homeless Gospel Choir
words: aaron eisenreich
On his 2014 album I Used to Be So Young, Derek Zanetti laments that “there’s only so much music that a one-man band can make.” Well, with the release of “Don’t Compare,” The Homeless Gospel Choir is a one-man band no more. The full-band lineup made its debut with a fantastic show at The Funhouse in Millvale back in August, reworking old songs, and offering a preview of some of what’s to come.
“Don’t Compare,” the first bit of music released from a forthcoming full length, finds Zanetti gelling perfectly with his new bandmates. Lyrically, Zanetti is working with themes that fans will have come to expect, and he sounds shaper, wittier, and more devastating than ever. As the song breaks down in the middle, he sings “you know your greatest fear is that you’ll always be too something for someone else to love / the internet only shows you things that it wants you to want” before a fantasy about shutting down Fox News leads into a ripping guitar solo. The moment of inner panic followed by the cathartic explosion of noise is a great representation of what is so special about The Homeless Gospel Choir’s music.
The ultimate message of being able to accept who you are, without worrying about the impossible endless comparisons offered to you, fits with the overall welcoming message of Zanetti’s take on punk music: every song is a protest song and loving who you are when society tells you not to is a valuable act of protest.