Stew’s second album, also released as a Negro Problem record, was 1999’s Joys and Concerns. While Post Minstrel Syndrome was a grab bag of the songs the band had played over several years leading to its release, Joys and Concerns is a more cohesive album.

With a nod to the days of vinyl, the album is broken into sides, with the first six songs labeled “Joys” and the last six “Concerns.” I don’t see a real thematic difference in the songs on each half of the record, however. In fact, one of the “Concerns” songs is just a faster-paced version of the “Joys” song ‘Comikbuchland’ (which I featured on the blog two and a half years ago).

Another song I love from the back half of the record is ‘Ken,’ about a gay Ken doll who resents being paired up with Barbie (I’ve featured that one on the blog as well).

On all of his albums, Stew has an annoying habit of packing hidden tracks at the end. When listening in the car, this isn’t a bad thing… it just means more good songs await you after the album appears to be over. But in the iTunes age, it’s a real pain in the ass.

Invariably the final track winds up running 35 minutes and contains four songs with a lot of silence between them. This makes it difficult to listen to any of those hidden songs individually, and more trouble than it’s worth to offer them up on the blog.

But today’s track is mercifully placed in the middle of the album. ‘Bleed’ is another of the pretty ones, and another enigmatic lyric. As a lyricist, Stew reminds me a lot of Elvis Costello. He delivers clever turns of phrase and powerful couplets but often the overall meaning of his songs is beyond my comprehension (and perhaps deliberately incomprehensible).