Kevin Devine – Nothing's Real So Nothing's Wrong | Album Review

“Being better doesn’t always mean we’re being good.”

Sometimes it feels like nothing at all is right. Whether I am wasting time on my social media, comparing debts with my partner, or discussing global politics with my mom, everyone appears like they’re straight up not having a good time. Then, six years after the tight and familiar Instigator, Kevin Devine returns with the maximalist bedroom indie rock of Nothing’s Real So Nothing’s Wrong, which feels oh so right.

Opening with a clip of his daughter’s voice, “Laurel Leaf (Anhedonia)” reintroduces Devine as the masterful songwriter he is. Rife with wobbly guitar and vocal melodies, the song boasts winding, clever lyricism like “All the signs I show myself, and I saw nothing." Before the first track fades out, listeners are reminded of the Nirvana-loving Devine with a surprising, thrashing refrain of the main melody buried deep in the mix. Although this incarnation of Devine is understandably more world-weary, he is still (underneath the acoustic guitars and synths) the headbanger his fans have come to know and love.

Override” is planted squarely in the new, lush sonic landscape of Nothing’s Real but also recalls prior Devine tracks as a driving, mid-tempo introspective rocker. “How Can I Help You?” shimmers in a way that wouldn’t be out of place in Wild Pink’s discography while “Swan Dive” maintains a similar head-nodding groove to carry through to “Albatross,” the album’s haunting lead single that closes side A. 

Recalling Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s eerie The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which the legendary titular bird represents both the beauty of nature and burdens in one’s life, Devine’s “Albatross” reinforces both Coleridge’s message and his own album’s thesis directly in the middle of the track:

Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Nothing matters anyway
If you’re frightened, stay awake
Pick a god and start to pray
Good Ganesha
Shiva's arms
Jesus Christ in camouflage
If you're sinking, sing along
Nothing's real so nothing's wrong.

A nihilistic echo of Coleridge’s poem, Devine’s bridge unsettles and disturbs as a spoken-word interlude that explodes into a hypnotic refrain. Like the rest of the record, “Albatross” sounds beautiful in its composition and mixing. In that beauty, however, Devine’s lyrics are the undercurrent of terror that comes with the burden of being alive right now.

After the darkly buoyant intermission of “If I’m Gonna Die Here,” Nothing’s Real continues with the Tom Petty-esque ballad “Someone Else’s Dream.” Devine explores creative and artistic dissociation and toxic fandom in the moody, distant “Hell Is An Impression of Myself,” where he sings, “Someone’s after me / for doing an impression of myself / for living an impression of myself.” With this being his 10th solo album, one could argue Devine would be remiss not to be reflecting on his growth and the trajectory of his career.

By no means a bad track, but certainly more reminiscent of previous work, “It’s A Trap!” feels more like a stop-gap before “Tried To Fall In Love (My Head Got In The Way).” The latter simmers to what feels like should be a fever pitch, but Devine, ever the subverter, pulls back and rips into an ethereal ambience full of record scratches and popping: the end is near.

In “Stitching Up The Suture,” Devine knits together the oxymorons and ironies presented in “Albatross.” He whispers lyrics over arpeggiated chords on a dark acoustic, surrounded by sparse percussion. This song is not the explosive, climaxing closer; this is Devine subverting listener expectations to convey his point one last time before he lets you try to understand again. This world is full of horror and heartbreak. However, among those crises can reside beauty and love, like hearing the voice of your child. Though that beauty and love do not fix the problems and pain of the present, they remind us to endure for the future, no matter what it might hold.

With crisp as-ever songwriting, stellar production, and fantastic sequencing, Kevin Devine’s Nothing’s Real So Nothing’s Wrong is not only another classic in his discography but a work of art that shines in a dimming world.


Joe Wasserman, clearly a high school English teacher, lives with his partner and their two dogs in Brooklyn. When he’s not listening to music, he writes short stories, plays bass in bar bands, and enjoys trying new beers. You can find him on Twitter at @a_cuppajoe.

Kevin Devine – No One's Waiting Up For Me Tonight | EP Review

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For nearly two decades, Brooklyn’s Kevin Devine has carved out cross-genre niches in his musical pursuits, whether it’s with emo cult favorite Miracle of 86, folk rock supergroup Bad Books, or collaborations with the likes of Craig Finn and Meredith Graves on his Divinyls Splits Series. Devine’s latest solo project sees him going back to singer-songwriterly basics. No One’s Waiting Up For Me Tonight is wistful and introspective, allowing for Devine’s delicate melodies and thoughtful lyricism to take center stage. Though at times the moody-broody Elliott Smith worship goes a bit too far-- lines like “God transmissions through my higher mind” warrant an eye roll --Devine manages to build off of his indie folk influences in a striking way.

Take the standout track “I’ve Never Been Happier Than I Was In That Picture,” a rose-tinted waltz through memories of a past romance. As he paints vivid scenes of still life drawings in deserts and barefoot fountain dances during a Brooklyn heatwave, Devine gives thanks to a former lover for the moments of joy that have been preserved by memory. His bittersweet gratitude is backed by a shimmering, Sufjan-esque string arrangement-- the most elaborate on an otherwise instrumentally sparse EP. 

These songs float between appreciation and regret, with memory serving as the throughline that tethers them to one another. There are times where it would seem easy for Devine to overindulge in nostalgia, an impulse which he artfully resists. The EP’s most striking moments come when Devine undercuts his own tendency toward romanticism with the occasional blunt one-liner: “you weren’t peaceful, you weren’t in love,” he sings on closing track “All There Is Now.” His ability to embrace both the beauty and the ugliness in his reflections on the past strengthens each emotional blow. The regretful “Taking Shape” juxtaposes Devine “coughing bloody yolk, threading a minefield blind” with Simon And Garfunkel-style vocal harmonies. Meanwhile, “Lakes On The Moon” is a stripped-down acoustic statement of humility, forgiveness, and loss. 

Composed in quarantine, No One’s Waiting Up For Me Tonight is imbued with anxieties about an uncertain future as well as the promise of personal growth. It’s a testament to self-reflection, but more than that, it shows Devine questioning how he can use this period of solitude to head into the unknown. Even in its loneliest moments, there remains a quiet hope. 


Grace Robins-Somerville is a writer from Brooklyn, New York. You can find her on Instagram @grace_roso and on Twitter @grace_roso.