Album: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi
Year: 1993
I think one of the things I loved most about Hi-Fi Sci-Fi was that while most of the songs were uptempo rockers, the words were about people going through totally fucked up things: homelessness, drug addiction, insomnia and just feeling worthless as a human being.
The grand exception is the beautiful power ballad, “Incredible,” in which one of the fuckups from the rest of the record is going through a good patch for once.
There’s an angel in my kitchenette
Smokes my brand of cigarettes
So we’re compatibleAnd she can’t live without her radio
She likes to sleep with it turned on
She says that she never sleeps alone
As “Incredible” builds, it never loses its sense of wonder and happiness, even as Easdale describes the kind of situation that only young bohos could ever possibly think was romantic.
Our electric bill’s our great expense
12 dollars, 37 cents
So it’s affordable
At this point, Clem Burke, who’s been relatively quiet throughout the song, executes a stop-time part that stops time, so you can think about how — even in 1993 — a $12.37 electric bill was so unrealistic so as to cast aspersions on the veracity of the rest of the song.
And you begin to wonder, is “Incredible” a fantasy? It is just a moment of imagined respite by one of the guys in the song as he’s facing down the street or detox or the one great dream he’s has on an otherwise sleepless night.
Maybe.
It’s simply wonderful
It’s remarkable
Beautiful
It’s wonderful
Incredible
Incredible
Incredible
Incredible
Incredible
Incredible
Incredible
And, if so, maybe it doesn’t even matter, as “Incredible” rides out on a hail of guitars and drums straight into the total bad trips awaiting on the rest of the album.
Fan-made video for “Incredible”