Review: Leeroy Stagger provides cathartic release with ‘3 AM Revelations’

Magic happens during the witching hour. It’s that time of night when most folks are deep in slumber. The only ones awake conjure spells, write enchanting melodies, or assemble creatures from their wildest imaginations. Leeroy Stagger found himself bound to the night, engulfed in his music and composing feverishly what would become his 13th studio record. It seems appropriate that the number 13 documents his journey, an equally bedeviling bookmark for his ongoing story. 3 AM Revelations is a jarringly dark and twisted tale of those wee morning hours when inspiration struck like lightning bolts in a lone cornfield. With no particular aim other than to create, Stagger masterfully erects the pinnacle of his career through sheer intuition, finely-tuned craftsmanship, and a daring to be raw and vulnerable.

“I pay my taxes and still, I suppose I could do a bit more / But it’s all become such a bore,” he admits through electric static in the rabble-rousing opener “Mediocrity Pill.” He strains to push through existence, which has melted into a puddle of the mundane and excruciatingly numb. Nothing excites him these days, yet by filtering out his anxieties onto paper, he ignites a match that lights a fire beneath his feet. So, he marches onward as best he can, despite it all. Where “Count to Ten” thrashes against the skull, “Alberta Stars” hums with moody vibrations. A heartbreak trends him in half, the two pieces never fitting back together again, and his voice quakes with unbridled aches. “Sometimes the love goes black / And sometimes the heart attacks,” he whispers in an ethereal haze.

Emotions collect like pools of goo at his feet. All he can do is wash his hands in the pain of the past, before picking up his guitar again and relinquishing his heart. The somber “Life’s a Drag (When You Are All Messed Up)” appears like a specter, emerging as the album’s cracked backbone. Stagger reaches into the darkest recesses of his soul to excavate something earth-shatteringly spooky and torrential. Guitar boos and hisses over stark piano keys. His voice, barely above a sigh, unpacks the tragic beauty of his spirit, much like opening Pandora’s box. What he unleashes haunts the listener across all 10 tracks. They’re monstrous beings that somehow uncloud the mind and let it all vanish into thin air. “Life’s a drag,” he repeats, as though his last breath escapes his lungs.

3 AM Revelations makes grand statements about life, agony, loss, and redemption. Stagger weaves all these qualities together into a tortured tapestry. To say it arrives as one of the year’s best albums is an understatement. You just have to experience it for yourself.

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