Keep Being Awesome!

***Keep Being Awesome!*** is the magnum opus of the The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man.

This No Jokes album is the 10th release by this artist. It contains 74 tracks, with a running time of 2 hours and 1 minute. It was released on March 20, 2016 (Spotify release date; it took up to week to appear on all streaming platforms), and about four and a half months after *Common Phrases*. It is essentially the length of a triple-album.

The album is discussed in-depth on MMIP episodes #96 and #97 (April 6, 2016), though Farley also references the development of the album in podcast episodes for a few months prior to its final release (including #86 and #93).

The album was officially released on the Singing Animal Lover Music label instead of Motern Media because of the songs where Roy sings about punching people in the face.

Though the album is a wide-ranging concept album, two of the songs are also city songs that The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities And Towns would normally release. They were the result of requests from British radio stations while Farley was recording the album.

## Reception

Upon its release *Prairie Goth* declared the double album its Album of The Year to that point.

Justin Decloux of *Film Trap* wrote that this album is a "staggering work which at 74 dense musical tracks is Farley's *Finnegan's Wake*. He also wrote: "It sounds at first like a novelty album by The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man along the lines of Job Songs, but it slowly morphs into the harrowing journey of a man who goes to different towns and punches people in the face".

Music critic Robert Janz wrote in his album review that "there is so much great music on The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man's tenth album that it is hard to describe it."

## Popular songs

Through 2018, this album has by far generated the most cover songs entered into the Motern Media Cover Song Challenge, with 13 entries from 2016-18.

The Motern Media No Jokes! Playlist on Spotify contains the following songs from this album as of August 2019, which indicates Farley's opinion as to the albums top tracks: Never Stop Being Amazed By Life, It's OK to Break the Law if You Have Good Intentions (also appears on *W.M.D.E.2 (live)* and *Motern Extravaganza 2019*), Heard She Got Married (also appears on *Live in Danvers! (World Motern Day Extravaganza)*, *W.M.D.E.2 (live)* and *Motern Extravaganza 2019*), Gotta Go!, Existential Crisis (also appears on *Live in Danvers! (World Motern Day Extravaganza)*), Running Away from My Problems (Also on *W.M.D.E.2 (live)*), I Am a Dangerous Man, and I'm the Monster You Created.

"I Wear Tight Pants When I Dance" also appears on *Live in Danvers! (World Motern Day Extravaganza)*.

Farley has also created a 30-track Spotify playlist of the top tracks from the album [1].

## Official album description

CDBaby blurb: "The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man was sick of writing novelty songs about mundane things. So he made this epic mission statement!"

CDBaby album notes: "As many of you know, The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man checked into rehab for "exhaustion" immediately after completing the epic album COMMON PHRASES. It was a 90-day program. But 45 days in, he checked himself out and returned to the studio to create this amazing, sprawling masterpiece that looks inward. It's spectacular!"

## Streaming links

Spotify: [2]
CDBaby: [3]
Amazon: [4]
Apple Music: [5]

## See also

* Original handwritten list of song titles (Twitter)

## References

<references>

1. ↑ keep being awesome!, *Prairie Goth* (April 1, 2016)
2. ↑ Decloux, Justin. The Best Music of Matt Farley, *Film Trap* (June 11, 2018)
3. ↑ Keep Being Awesome (Review), DRP Entertainment (July 7, 2017)