Jim Ward - Broken Songs

Jim Ward is what I like to call a voyager musician. Someone who travels and works with multiple bands in the course of their lifetime. To date, Ward has worked on three groups: At the Drive-In, Sleepcar, and Sparta. Only recently have I listened to any of these bands, and only in preparation for this semi-random blog post. Serious research here as always. Jim Ward came into my life as a solo artist. A high level overview of Ward’s career reveals a conquerable effort put towards At the Drive-In, Sparta and his solo work, having seven, six and seven studio albums respectively. That is not so common. The longevity or contributions to multiple projects, but this also explains why discovering Ward as a solo artist was probably a one in three chance of how I would encounter him.

The point, the single song by Jim Ward that was won my heart is “Broken Songs.” Everything else I have listened to outside of that has been good, but as is often the case, only this one song keeps me coming back for more, at least, for now.

As far as my ear can detective Jim Ward’s “Broken Songs” is pretty simple, the rhythm sections does not change throughout the entire song. Maybe the tempo changes for the chorus? But here is the thing, there are not really any choruses, just three very similar verses, each ending in what I guess could be considered the chorus.

There are only two unique lines in the entirety of the song, the second part of the first two verse intros:

“I'm not too comfortable to fall from the start,
Well, I don't find success interesting as art.”

&

“I'm not too comfortable to fall from the start.
When it gets too intimate, then I fall apart.”

Something about the very simple line of “I don’t find success as interesting as art,” very meaningful. I played this song for friends and they did not feel what I felt, and I wonder if that is because of our different live styles. For them, the line seemed obvious, supremely obvious, but for me it’s different, I live in a word of corporate considerations and cold calculations, and the time spent doing so can distract the mind from true passions. Also, perception of others looking in from the outside of myself, even friends sometimes think of me in those word, cold, calculating, logical, and they may be correct, but then hey, I got a music blog. Art is more interesting, but the struggle between pragmatism and creativity is very real.

So yeah, “I don’t find success as interesting as art,” despite my education, my career, and my lack of artistic talent, I do feel that way. I may not have expressed myself so before Ward sang those exact words, but I do, and always have felt so.

During my peak Tegan and Sara interest I discovered a number of songs which features one or the other twin and from there discovered new artists. Mostly I discovered lesser-known indie rock groups, which my busy life schedule prevented me from digger too deep into. Such was the case for Jim Ward and “Broken Songs,” as I first heard it feature Tegan Quin.

Acoustic Version Featuring Tegan Quin:

For years, at least six, I thought the version featuring Tegan was the official studio recording of the song. It turns out I was half correct. There are two studio versions, an electric and an acoustic version, and I am not sure which one is more official from an album or EP. The electric version is Jim solo, and the acoustic version feature Tegan. In a personal way there is a parallel with UFO “Only You Can Rock Me” as I was listening one version for years before realizing the original. It was this electrical version that brought my attention back to Jim Ward and this song and in doing so rekindled my love for it.

I hope other enjoy “Broken Songs” as much as I do, because I have built a life based on them.

- King of Braves