My name is on that huge list of indiegogo supporters, somewhere ;D
I gave this weird little man like $200 about a year ago to make this album and I really couldn't be happier with what he made. If I may gush about this album a touch...
It feels like the melancholic and beautiful ending to a half-decade long character arc, started with 2015's Everything Is A Lot. If you listen to EIAL and then come listen to this, you would not believe it was music made by the same man. EIAL was manic, chaotic, vaudevillian "dark cabaret" music. And his 2016 follow-up, SELF-iSH is more of the same.
But then Will went to therapy. He got on medication. He stopped participating in many of the self-destructive behaviors and activities that fueled his musical persona. He became an outspoken mental health activist. So after a hiatus, in 2020 he released The Normal Album, which dealt with his identity crisis about becoming more "normal" from many perspectives. More than his previous work it looked inward and focused on his insecurities and worries.
And now, 2022, "In case I make it," said Will Wood, as though that were the title.
It's a beautiful album. He's said the name comes from an irrational fear he had about his impending death, and how these were the songs he felt he needed to get out into the world if it happened. The IndieGoGo campaign called the album In Case I Die, but at some point he decided it needed a hopeful note.
There are songs on here that touch me so badly they make me cry and I have to skip them (Euthanasia, a brutally heartfelt song about losing a pet), there are songs about his regrets over his past (Half-Decade Hangover, Sex Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll), there are songs that I feel on a spiritual level and wonder how many have felt the same, and positively scream the climactic lyrics in the car (Becoming the Lastnames), and there are songs that just fuck around and have a wacky time (Willard!, the idea of which was "what if there was musical based on that book/movie about a dude who gets rats to kill people for him") and I can't recommend it enough. At least give it a once-over. There's probably something in here for you.
Also Track 14 objectively has the best name of any song ever. The full title is, no shit: Big Fat Bitchie’s Blueberry Pie, Christmas Tree, and Recreational Jell-o Emporium a.k.a. “Mr. Boy is on the Roof Again” (Feat. Pasta by Sneakers McSqueakers) [From the Motion Picture ”B.F.B.’s B-Sides: Bagel Batches, Marshmallows, and Barsh-mallows]
The song is 47 seconds long, has no lyrics, and sounds like an ice cream truck being waterboarded.