Review Summary: I'm Trying to Fly to the Moon Using Two Magnets and Willpower is a great song title.
Curl Up And Die had been slowly working their way up my last.fm recommendations for awhile now, finding the name to be incredibly bland and boring, I ignored them. This continued until they managed to inch their way up into my top 10, when I finally decided to check them out.
The One Above All, The End Of All That Is is definitely an album that needs to be taken in all at once. The few tracks from this release that were posted on their myspace sounded incredibly boring upon the first few listens, and when out of context of the rest of the release, the same could be said about any track here.
The first song on the album,
An Uncomfortable Routine starts off with some heavily distorted and almost haunting work by Matt Fuchs (guitar), Ryan Hartery (bass), and Jesse Fitts (drums). This keeps up for nearly a minute, when Mike Minnick adds his vocals in and brings the emotions already present in the song up a few notches. The track slows down into a near ballad like structure for a brief moment, only to be quickly followed by a speedy buildup, and a breakdown.
Antidepressants Are Depressing immediately follows with hectic instrument work from everyone in the group, with Minnick only having enough time to blurt out a few lines before everything ends. This track isn't incredible by any stretch of the imagination, but following the somewhat slow and anxious buildup of
An Uncomfortable Routine, it sounds much better than it would on its own. The title track of the release, which you would probably expect to be some memorable track, doesn't actually do anything other than act as a transition for the next song. Maybe the artists were being lazy, or maybe they just didn't want you to be thrown into the next track immediately after a ride as intense as
Ultra Carb Diet Carpooling Stupid ***ing Life, who knows?
Instrumental, just reading the name makes you think you're in for an unimpressive and out of place ballad void of any lyrics, put in just so the album could become more accessible. You'd think that but you'd be dead wrong. Moving back to the speed of the first track, Instrumental kicks things off with some very catchy work by everyone in the group, Jesse Fitts particularly stands out by laying out some very groovy and melodic beats. This track also showcases the signature poem-like lyric style of Curl Up and Die better than anything on the release so far:
"She kisses like cough syrup when I have a cold.
But we're not in love, we're just alone.
Like a drug company's overdose.
Trying to replace our heads with holes.
We're missing days and spending weeks.
Only passing through looking for company.
And semen released is a rotting stomach.
Like a body drained of blood.
My flaw. Our failure."
Some of this is brought out in Minnick's same emotional, yet somewhat monotone scream, while others are spoken and accompanied by dramatically softer music.
Black Out takes this even farther with Fuchs using the first few seconds put forward a very slow and melodic solo, Fitts and Hartery steadily join in and continue with the same few beats and chords for a few seconds before Minnick joins in with the phrase "These thoughts can't be mine / But they're the only thoughts I have." The intensity takes a huge boost at this point while still maintaining the same mood. The track is made all the more impressive simply by the buildup of the previous songs. There's no doubt that the mood would still be there if you listened to this track on its own, but it wouldn't be nearly as impressive. In direct contrast to the buildup and slowdown of the S/T, Black Out stretch,
There Ain't No Can't In American. throws us back into the somewhat math and grind inspired hardcore sound of the first stretch of the album. Things build up in intensity, but start to slow down again. A fairly smart choice considering that continuing with that sound would really take away from the entire album.
I'm Trying to Fly to the Moon Using Two Magnets and Willpower continues by mixing almost post-hardcore and post-rock sounds, while
Blood Mosh Hips Hair Lips Pills *** Death continues with this sound, and closes out the album leaving you thoroughly impressed.
This album is definitely a hit or miss album. You might need to give it a chance to grow on you, or you might immediately throw it out. Whatever you decide to do with it, I'd still recommend you check it out.
