The day-in, day-out life of crime isn’t as glamorous as the big job, as we see in “Bones Don’t Rust.”

Track: “Bones Don’t Rust”
Album: Bleed Out (2022)

The first two verses of “Bones Don’t Rust” are all you need to understand the themes of Bleed Out. We’re dealing with an old-school, past-their-prime-but-who-cares kind of hood. The go-to stand-in for a lot of people will be guys from the blood-and-guts 70s and 80s, but I’ve lately been watching a lot of older noir crime movies and you see these guys in there just as often. “Bones Don’t Rust” imagines the life of someone who probably isn’t even named in one of those movies. This isn’t the main guy who is going to take home the big pay, this is a cog in the machine. Crimes in these movies require ensemble casts and some of those folks are just taking what they can get and doing a job.

“But they can find a use for a scarecrow // depending on your stomach for crows” is possibly my favorite example across Bleed Out. There are a lot to choose from, but you really understand the situation when you consider those two lines. This is work. It’s tough, probably illegal work, but it’s work. You drive the guy to the place and some stuff happens inside and then you drive him somewhere else. You get the next job because people around know you weren’t late to the last one. The characters we spend all our time with have grander goals, but you’re just at work. We don’t find out why this is the job you do, but that’s for another day. Today, you’re just punchin’ in and there are some jobs nobody else is going to do.