“Random Rules” by Silver Jews

David Berman wrote "Random Rules" and sings it himself, and it belongs to American Water, the third Silver Jews album, released in 1998 on Drag City in America and Domino in Europe. The record was cut at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn and mastered at Abbey Road, with a crew that included Stephen Malkmus, Tim Barnes, Mike Fellows and Chris Stroffolino alongside Berman.

Berman was fighting drug addiction while they made it, and he said the studio was full of drugs, yet what he wanted was a record that felt fun to make instead of one more painful ordeal. Across the album that trouble turns outward into fellow feeling for people who are down on their luck, and it picks up the themes of The Natural Bridge, the album before it, only to turn them over and question them.

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