Review Summary: The journey continues and the light is still out of reach...
Jesu, forever floating among the clouds, testing new boundaries – these are statements that should glorify any new release especially those that dabble in post-rock in an underground setting. Jesu’s 2013 release, the mystical yet completely expected (having released a record every two years)
Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came highlights how a project that does all the right things doesn’t exactly move forward or regress, despite a rather ambitious album title.
Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came is solid and interesting enough to appease a fan-base that will accept the musical styling’s of Justin Broadrick without so much as a show of growth both as an artist or the music he puts on disc. As it stands Jesu’s
Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came is good, albeit lacks enough interest to see such a project truly reach the heights which are promised.
Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came marks a certain niche in today’s music. Whether the abstract idealisms are relevant or made for a specific thought in mind it all comes down to interpretation of the listener. It’s unfortunate that Jesu’s 2013 release doesn’t swell and expand into a flourishing post hybrid album of epic proportions; rather it culminates into a same-y display of Broadrick’s best to date. Even the man’s vocals seem to fall short. They lack presence, force and power. The croons of Justin match the music but they need more to engage the listener throughout. In this case they should not be treated as ‘just’ another musical element, they need to convey the emotive context found constantly in Jesu’s music – without that,
Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came remains regretfully, dull and tamed.
Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came spends too much time fleshing out ideas. Sure, it’s great to see Broadrick relishing the chance to allow the flamboyant embellishments of shoe-gazed post rock styles to weave overlap and play off each other. It works, but on an album with nothing more than ‘good’ for forty-two and a half minutes the question comes begging: Isn’t this supposed to be better? The short answer is yes, but for what it’s worth the repetitious and quasi-recycled musical nuances don’t give life to the ambitious thoughts found throughout the record. Everything here is the definition of “good” but fails to be anything impressive. Even the album’s longest track, ‘The Great Leveller’ at a moderately lengthy seventeen minutes doesn’t outplay the rest of the album as an opus with this comparative length should. However there’s something to be said for this “pretty” music. It’s not every day that the underground gets a spot in the limelight. Jesu has undoubtedly deserved it through a dedication to sound, there’s still some growing to do and Broadrick has the potential to get to the light in which he seeks (so to speak), but he’s not there yet. Only time will tell which “light” Jesu came.
