Review Summary: A beautiful collection of songs, that while for the most part are sad, are easy to relate to and very introspective & emotive.
[L]http://emptyself.bandcamp.com/[L]
Emptyself is a project of Eric Johanson, the front man of the band Cire. He certainly has had a rough time before & during the time this album was written, the best example of that being that during hurricane Katrina he lost his whole studio and had to re locate to New Zealand. Now this appears to be the primary inspiration behind some of the songs. This is a great thing, because you can feel all of the emotion he puts into the songs. Here we are presented with an 11 impressive songs of introspective, chilled music.
Music Styles & Elements: There are a lot of styles going on throughout the album, including trip hop, psychedelic, blues and industrial. Most of the songs are based on acoustic guitar with beautiful melodies and catchy hooks, along with occasional piano and electronic elements such as electronic drums and synth, the songs range from 3 minutes to 7 minutes.
Lyrics: The lyrics throughout the album are very poetic, insightful and clever. Eric is clearly a very honed song writer with the lyrics connecting to me on many personal levels. In artificial light he sings "Don't mistake the truth for the fake, a raft for an island, asleep for awake. There are so many ways to evade what's right in front of your face." It's moments like this and the climax of this song that really send chills down your back. In "Just go on" He sings "I've had my best days down this road, way past the signs that lead back home, so I've got no choice but to just go on and follow the same lights I've always relied upon" The album is also very hopeful despite the sadness it often displays.
'Nothing follows, nothing stays' clocks in at 55 minutes, but at no point does it feel that it is overdrawn. Perhaps the only song that I was not so keen on at first was "slow devour" which is a rather strange song for Emptyself to release, it did grow on me though and the lyrics are creepy and stellar.
I have given the album 4.5, to make up for the bias that I possibly have for Emptyself's music.
Recommended tracks:
Get Away Or Disintegrate
Artificial Light
Scattered Parts.
Nothing follows, nothing stays.
Enjoy.
. I don't usually do reviews, but this album really deserves some exposure. Hope you enjoy it, I think it's better than the last record!
