It’s a beautifully romantic notion that a songwriter might spend thirty years sitting on one of his finest ideas. Not in the cinematic, ‘lost masterpiece’ sense, but in the more plausible sense that some people hang on to a good bottle of wine on the shelf until a day arrives that seems ‘worthy’ of opening it. Sometimes such a day comes along. Other times, it doesn’t, and you are left with dusty shelves and a story to tell. Jason McKee has a bottle in the former camp with this track.
McKee, the Melbourne musician who records as Reetoxa, penned the track in 1995, aged fifteen. As a teenager, he evidently decided the song was too strong for a first release, mentally archiving it for a theoretical second album; an act of optimistic teenage hubris that apparently paid off, three decades down the track.
The song’s backstory lends it a genuine, non-manufactured emotional depth. Written after driving his high-school girlfriend to a late-night mission to assist a friend in getting medicine from controlling parents, Bottle captures the chaotic mixture of teenage rebellion, youthful compassion and starry-eyed certainty that characterizes the experience of being fifteen. This is an age where problems appear monumental, friendships appear unbreakable, and late-night, impromptu rescue missions feel like they are part of some sort of teen drama. Thankfully, the production understands that nostalgia isn’t about sanitizing the past.
Producer Simon Moro smartly chooses not to modernize the song, allowing its ’90s rock backbone to remain in place, whilst giving it a sonic clout it probably always warranted. James Ryan’s guitars extend McKee’s original ideas to create a far larger, more muscular song without being marred by any excess. The result isn’t a demo dragged into the present day; it feels more like a properly developed photograph finally emerging from a darkroom.
The most extraordinary thing about Bottle is that it sounds nothing at all like a museum piece. While many resurrected songs come with the distinct scent of ‘you had to be there’, this one doesn’t. Its themes of mental health struggles, challenging familial circumstances and the faith that friendship may, on occasion, be enough to see you through, are still acutely relevant.
Thirty years is a long time to wait for a single, but Bottle argues convincing for the enduring value of some of the best songs; it just takes a while for somebody to remember where they put them.
Follow Reetoxa
About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
