Review Summary: get carried away
The feel of a review should be paired with the thing reviewed – it just makes sense. In a general way, the words match the music. There would be something odd in getting too metaphysical about Taylor Swift, or to focus on the hype surrounding a new Mozart interpretation. Music will be presented in a certain context and a review must be aware of this. So how to review an album like
wake, set deliberately beyond language in what some philosophers call “pure feeling”? How do you put words to that?
Doing so would seem to miss the point, yet here we are. I do not want to break
wake down but give an impression of the experience without getting overly metaphorical. This would be too easy: low hums, backwards melodies and an airy grace invite us to share its soft embrace, or something. But first I want to say
wake is really good. Really, really good.
wake defies criticism because we are asked to leave cynicism at the door. This is a space where it makes such overwhelming sense to just
give in. There is no pretence here, or hidden intentions, and it gives the impression of being utterly effortless. Nor is it overly pretty. In fact it leaves itself quite vague. Half-realised thoughts flicker at the border but vanish as they come into view, and there is no frustration in this – we are left content with simple feeling itself.
Months have passed since the last album able to inspire such pure, naïve love. In the first repetitions of “beyond”, I found myself bristling with empathy. (For what? I don’t know. We’re beyond language, remember?). With “blue”, the tone shifts lower: there’s some loss in the mix now, but still it feels easy and uncomplicated. By the time “noville” comes round the sense of calm is almost complete. If only monks high up on mountain temples had a stable internet connection, they could skip a few weeks of meditation with a quick trip to bandcamp.
In the end, there is probably something negative to say about
wake somewhere. Only it doesn’t make sense to. Actually, it would feel
wrong, because there’s a beauty here too precious to risk tarnishing. In its gentle, dreamlike way, something very special flows in wake, which leaves me only to point out that this is a debut album, so maybe we will get far more than we deserve and the best is yet to come. Until then, this feeling is more than enough.
s
