New: Same Shit, Different Century by Cyrena Wages

Wanna dive in and join? Be careful. She's got more balls than Serena Williams.

After writing about an artist for as long as I have been writing about Cyrena Wages, you might run out of stuff to say. Luckily she is such a funny, complex cookie that I am not in that position yet and cannot imagine such a day coming to pass. I have a different problem. I was sending so many compliments that I started to feel embarrassed.

In Tennessee they throw around compliments like confetti at a royal wedding. In England we don’t throw around compliments at all; perhaps it’s more like confetti at a funeral here. Let’s crack on.

Alison Krauss. She has worked with Robert Plant and they recorded a song together called Gone, Gone, Gone. Of course, it is an Everly Brothers cover. Cyrena Wages is better than the Everly Brothers. Gone is not the best title perhaps but Cyrena’s latest, Same Shit, Different Century, (an incredible title actually) reminded me in a wonderful way of the Gones.

Cyrena Wages is better than the Everly Brothers. Period.

This song simmers gently where If It Ain’t Broke and Find Out boiled. Same Shit has a chugging guitar which means it is perfect for driving a desert highway. Or just popping out to the 7-Eleven with your babies and dogs. I can’t think of a single thing you might want to do in your day that wouldn’t be improved by listening to this. And worth bearing in mind: my version of Same Shit is a rough demo.

I really enjoyed If It Ain’t Broke last year. The humour is evident from a first listen. But when I saw the video, lawd, my sides split open and my intestines fell out on the freshly dopamine-stained carpet. I damn near died. Interesting because the guy in the video certainly was dead or at least his legs and feet were. I just never managed to figure out why her hair is pegged to a washing line.

Same Shit is partly about the inevitable nature of men and women and how it hasn’t changed in a hundred years. It’s quite likely that the absolute basic chemistry hasn’t changed in a thousand years, or a million. This brings both pros and cons. It seems earlier in the song that Cyrena was hoping for more from her man. She always expects more than men are able to provide, even though she isn’t really hoping for much. Can’t they just behave?

The pro of course is that the lessons learned by our ancestors, by our mothers and grandmothers, are just as relevant today. We can learn a lot from those who learned all the tricks before we were born. If the world had changed too much through the generations, things might be even worse than they are.

Do you need a fix?
Then I got your back
Gonna hit you in the head
Like a baseball bat
Let’s rumble
Let’s rage

One of the things I love most about Cyrena is her demure femininity... hah! She’s got more balls than any man in America. She is most certainly from Venus though. One thing about Cyrena Catherine Wages is that she will always cheer you up. If you want something darker and more serious then try 2024’s Vanity Project. I have been listening again to Vanity Project again this week while waiting for Same Shit to drop. It’s still brilliant. It is so varied, so pained.

These are the wounds from which Cyrena still heals. I hope she is always pissed off, at least in her persona. Whether she is Patsy or Cyrena, or C$, or one of her many other characters does not matter. There are no misfires. There is only quality every damn time. If you prefer funny dark humour, the scars from the wound, then hit the new tunes. They offer a rich seam. She is starting to laugh at herself, but only now and then.

I cannot wait to hear more music. Cyrena is the only Cyrena I have ever heard of in the whole world and if you’re still dope enough not to know, it is Serena Wages. Like Serena Williams but with more balls. Wages as in earnings from a job. And what a job this is!

You can stream Same Shit in all the usual places and find out more on her website. Her first album, set in Memphis, was Vanity Project.

The videos below are older songs. The Overton Park BTS footage just shows how magnetic she is. CW is never happier than performing in front of her hometown crowd. The Carried Away footage is more recent and shows how equally at home she is in the studio.