Review Summary: Music to watch the sunrise with.
I started listening to
Weight of Your Own the other night while I was winding down, but I felt like something was off; there was some part of the experience that I was missing. I’m not normally sentimental when it comes to “experiencing” music, but there was something about it that felt incomplete. So when I involuntarily woke up at 5:45 the next morning (like I always do), instead of forcing myself back to sleep, I got out of bed. I made myself some coffee, went to the roof of my building, lit a cigarette, and put the record on. It had recently rained, the sky was clear (a damn near miracle in Los Angeles), and I waited for the sunrise. It was worth the lost hour of sleep.
The record flows seamlessly between dreamy synths, airy keys, and ambience, all backed by beats that are somehow never boring, but never showy. In fact, nothing on this album is flamboyant or pretentious. The vibe is evocative of taking a walk on a perfect day, or having a cigar while chatting with friends about nothing in particular. There is an almost therapeutic quality that pulls you out of the rush and stress of life and brings you back to a time when things were simpler.
Despite being decidedly unglamorous,
Weight of Your Own is deceptively deep in its emotional landscape. It subtly moves from bouncy to relaxed, sometimes conjuring a pleasant mood and other times a poignant melancholy. As an example, the opener, “In Amber” begins with a bouncy beat before being offset by a pleasantly relaxed keyboard, setting the tone for the first half of the record. At the midway point though, “Healing Hours” and “White Sands” shift to an equally placid, yet darker tone, after which the music rises to a crescendo, only to then draw back into a more introspective mood. As the album comes to a close, “I Must Be Breathing” calmly eases the album out with an optimistic mood.
Sure, sometimes it feels like the songs are mushing into each other a bit and sometimes it feels like there almost isn’t enough going on, but that’s probably the whole point. On this album, everything is taking a backseat to the calm and spacious atmosphere, and at slightly over forty minutes, it doesn't drag on too long either.
I live a busy life. I have a wife, I have a job, and I have my interests that sometimes consume all of my attention. I listen to a lot of music that reflects that; loud, aggressive and relentless. I’m lucky that projects like Echosoft exist, because sometimes I need a reminder to take a step back, take a deep breath, and enjoy something like the sunrise.
