There’s something perverse about discovering your new favourite gin while the world appears to be careening toward some sort of finale. But that’s exactly what happened the evening “Let The Gin Work Its Magic” spilled out of me, courtesy of Never Never Distilling Co’s Juniper Freak Gin and the peculiar clarity that comes when you’re simultaneously anaesthetised and hyperaware.
I’d recently discovered Navy Strength gin while interviewing Never Never’s Sean Baxter for The Adelaide Show podcast, and was sipping a glass or two of this particular Adelaide creation, feeling the warmth seep through my body. For the record, two shots is plenty. But in this anaesthetised state, my mind started wandering, untethered. I was cocooned while thinking about bombs being dropped on towns and cities on the other side of this world at this very moment, while also reflecting on some very unhinged world leaders who are being violently and greedily selfish with their power, and completely short sighted. And who will pay that price? Us. In the midst of realising the pathos and helplessness of my/our position, I decided that evening to simply take solace in the effects of this exquisite gin, for tomorrow we might be… well, you know how that sentence ends.
What fascinates me about this song is how it captures that particular state of mind where resignation meets defiance. The chorus “Let the gin work its magic / Let the spirit break free” isn’t just about alcohol (though it’s certainly about that too). It’s about surrendering to forces beyond our control while simultaneously refusing to go quietly into whatever darkness awaits. There’s something beautifully contradictory about using gin as both escape mechanism and truth serum.
The Tom Waits reference in the opening verse wasn’t accidental. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, we need voices that help us “sing out loud ’til we bleed.” Not the sanitised, crowd-pleasing voices that tell us everything will be fine, but the gravelly, honest ones that acknowledge the wound is deep and the prospects are indeed bleak. Waits has always been that voice for me, someone who finds beauty in the broken parts of existence.
What struck me most while writing this was the tension between our temporary nature and our godlike delusions. “We are only here briefly / We are just passing through” sits alongside “They say ‘live like you’re dying’ / But we live like we’re gods.” There’s the rub, isn’t it? We know intellectually that we’re mortal, that our time is limited, yet we behave as if we’re immortal beings with infinite chances to get it right.
The bridge landed with particular force: “The clock’s always ticking / But we choose not to hear / The clock’s always ticking / But we’re drunk on our fear.” Fear, it turns out, is just as intoxicating as gin, and considerably more dangerous. At least gin gives you a hangover the next morning to remind you of your limitations. Fear just keeps you numb indefinitely.
There’s also something specifically Australian about finding profundity at the bottom of a quality gin glass while contemplating global catastrophe. We’ve got this tradition of irreverent gallows humour, of finding the absurd angle in the most serious situations. Never Never Distilling Co’s Juniper Freak Gin became the perfect accomplice for this particular piece of musical fatalism.
The song builds to that repeated chorus, where physics and gravity themselves become casualties of whatever’s coming. “Fall to earth with a sense of finality” carries both the literal image of things crashing down and the metaphorical weight of accepting that some endings really are endings. Sometimes the most radical act is simply acknowledging reality instead of spinning another hopeful narrative.
Lyrics: “Let The Gin Work Its Magic”
[Verse 1] Tom Waits, Tom Waits
We need more people like you
Who help us sing out loud
‘Til we bleed
When the wound is deep
And the prospects bleak
You’re the one sole voice
That we need
[Verse 2] Mountains they tumble
And towns disappear
As the evil men
Live their decree
And as our kitchens turn black
And our lifelines are sheered
We cry for hope for you
And for me
[Chorus] Let the gin work its magic
Let the spirit break free
Let the future go spinning
Like the earth breaking free
Let the laws of physics
And of gravity
Fall to earth with a sense of
Finality
[Verse 3] We are only here briefly
We are just passing through
We don’t have long to stay
That insight’s nothing new
But we don’t seem to get it
We don’t see there’s an end
‘Til we’ve put our foot down
And to hell with the bend
[Chorus] Let the gin work its magic
Let the spirit break free
Let the future go spinning
Like the earth breaking free
Let the laws of physics
And of gravity
Fall to earth with a sense of
Finality
[Verse 4] The small and the petty
And the nasty and mean
They think they’re forever
They don’t’ see what I’ve seen
There’s an end that is coming
And they’ve wasted their chance
To emerge from the shadows
And to move and to dance
[Bridge] They say “live like you’re dying”
But we live like we’re gods
Fighting over crumbs
While ignoring the odds
The clock’s always ticking
But we choose not to hear
The clock’s always ticking
But we’re drunk on our fear
[Chorus] Let the gin work its magic
Let the spirit break free
Let the future go spinning
Like the earth breaking free
Let the laws of physics
And of gravity
Fall to earth with a sense of
Finality
[Chorus] Let the gin work its magic
Let the spirit break free
Let the future go spinning
Like the earth breaking free
Let the laws of physics
And of gravity
Fall to earth with a sense of
Finality
Listen to Let The Gin Work Its Magic
Here is the song on YouTube. It’s also available across all streaming platforms.