“You don’t always get a break. You just get better at running.” Nathan Bryce said that about the new Loaded Dice single, and I read it three times before I even pressed play. I’ve had weeks like that. Most people have.
“Panic Is the Norm” came out of Candace Crockett’s life as a widowed mother, so I braced myself for something heavy. She didn’t give me heavy. She gave me jokes. The lyric treats chaos like a roommate who never pays rent and never leaves, and after a while you just stop arguing and pour two drinks. I laughed out loud at a couple of lines, then felt a little gut punch right after. A sad version of this song would’ve been fine. This version is better, because it sounds like someone who got knocked down more than once and came back up cursing and smiling.
The band backs that attitude all the way. The guitars are thick and greasy, the groove struts, and the whole track pulls straight from that late 60s and early 70s era when blues and southern rock were basically the same beast. It never feels like a tribute act, though. The mix is clean and modern, but whoever produced it knew to leave the scuffs alone.
Then Clayton Doley shows up on piano. Ten seconds in, he starts hammering those keys with a reckless Jerry Lee Lewis energy, like he’s daring the bartender to kick him out. I was washing dishes when it hit, and I left the tap running just to turn the speaker up.
Honestly, my one gripe is the length. I wanted another full minute of Doley flying off the rails with the rest of the band scrambling to keep up. Still, this is going straight onto my car playlist for those days when everything falls apart, which lately feels like every day. Loaded Dice keep telling real stories without scrubbing the dirt out from under their fingernails, and this song proves it.