Office Covers by Lee Ketch
ALL PROCEEDS DONATED TO NOURISHING HOPE FOOD PANTRY, CHICAGO, IL
In December 2019, I bought a very small used car which I totaled a month later and for some reason opted to repair at great expense. Then lockdown happened and my whole life became my apartment and this car as I mostly just went to and from the grocery store. While the pandemic dragged on, those trips were the only time I'd sit and listen to music which is how the Office Culture record "Big Time Things" became the only album I listened to for six months straight, pausing only briefly to listen to Bono's audiobook. It's hard to think of a modern-day record that has spoken to me more deeply than this one. The music is beautiful, meticulously arranged and extremely romantic, but it's in the lyrics where songwriter Winston Cook-Wilson brings the banal into conversation with those aforementioned big time things. Listening to Winston's records is like standing next to him in front of a huge painting packed with overwhelming detail. After a while, he slowly leans into a small section of the painting and silently motions to you. Amid the chaos, he draws your attention to the depiction of a tiny cave, dimly illuminated by an unseen fire inside. He nudges you while transfixed by the little guy: "I wonder who's in there?" he asks. There's joy in the sharing of this mystery and the acknowledgment that neither of you will get an answer. That attitude is a gift to me as a person and a songwriter. When I reinterpreted these songs, I streamlined the arrangements in the hopes that you might hear what they have to say in a new way. In the words of Kage and JB:
"This is not the greatest song in the world
This is just a tribute"
- Lee
Tracklist
| 1. | A Word (Office Culture) | 4:33 |
| 2. | Was I Cruel (Office Culture) | 5:24 |
Credits
Songs by Winston Cook-Wilson and Office Culture (officeculture.bandcamp.com)
Arranged, performed and recorded by Lee Ketch at Harlot's Progress, 2023-2024
Drums performed and recorded by Amos Pitsch at Crutch of Memory, 2020 (crutchofmemory.com)
