Review Summary: Baby love, baby child, you're gonna die!
The couple-second soundbites we are bombarded with daily from every corner of the internet tend to get very easily reified, that is, made into static symbols that are open to carry quite the array of meanings that can never mind their variability not really exist at the same time in their function as a cultural meme in the Dawkins-sense, one that propagates itself through the effect of efficiency. There are a couple of symbol-flavours that are highly regarded by the faceless masses I usually imagine as the creators behind most of the flat content that permeates modern media, and the quirkiness of Mother Mother's production, lyrics, and delivery has been (un?)surprisingly successful in this format, filling time and attention spans emerging more than a decade after these musical sources were first released to the public. The criteria of the memes that successfully propagate are not arbitrary, but they definitely don't follow the imperative of musical quality, so the amount of information that is extractable from these circumstances might not be extensive – why do I still mention them when talking about this album?
The act of balance between the attempt to just make a piece of music that is in its constraints as close to an imagined perfection as possible, and the beauty that lies in the harmony and the variations between multiple units of music is one that is only strikable in very specific timeframes. Try the same thing again, the world broadly has moved on through those manifold mechanisms of markets, creativity, and social change that are so impossible to comprehensively track. The age of concept albums is long gone, meaning not that no one is trying to create such coherent types of artwork, but rather that doing so successfully in a cultural climate where it is neither expected nor actively wished for is bound to set you apart. The meaning of format is testament to eternally shifting lines in cultural sand which can only be conceptualised as such in the presence of other lines. That being said, the overarching concept of albums in general is being washed away. There are many reasons for this shift, and with my knowledge status they are hard to comprehensively set in relation to everything concerning human civilisation that is involved in this process, so let's just say that the accessibility of music, the call to individualised fulfilment of taste premises, the shift to an attention-based economy, and the move to streaming instead of buying cultural produce have all played their part in creating a fractured landscape that is marked by massive moves towards playlistification.
This specific climate therefore plays a considerable part in how an album such as Grief Chapter is processed and judged. The overarching theme of death is, of course, anything but new and revolutionary. Is there anything to be said about the end of all things that has not already found its place in the tapestry of human culture? Our slow move towards transhumanism might change our biological limitations, and our relationship with ephemerality to a degree that warrants new forms of expression of this essential conflict, however, much of the creation of this expression maybe won't lie within our hands to create; but I digress. I do not think that Mother Mother necessarily drag out thematic elements that are very special on their own, and they do not need to. There's a nod towards self-expression and life outside deterministic bounds put in place by society, which merges nicely with this exploration of the final deterministic bound: Our ultimate demise.
Now, what designates a well-executed 'true' album, that is, what shape is this overarching structure going to take, and why? Grief Chapter starts off ambivalent in tone yet clear in wording with a declaration of its thematic direction. The ebb and flow slowly adds more energy that finds its first bursting point in
Explode!, which is itself a compressed tension arc coming to a fulfilling conclusion, giving the impression of a path maybe not yet conquered, but defiantly treaded. The more uptempo and joyful-in-everything-but-lyrics
Days leads into the highlight
Forever, a whistful elaboration on the core theme that earns its staying power with an intricately textured soundscape stretching out into a non-linear structure that manages to state a very simple, but emotionally charged message in expressive nuances. The second half is less directed in its build-up and release of tension, with many brighter, uptempo songs interrupted by a slightly tense, static interlude, then closing on a somber note with the title track
Grief Chapter. Now, could this order be rearranged without losing what makes it work on the level of analysis incorporating the individual songs into a whole, and to which degree is this beneficial?
The choice to start with
Nobody Escapes is a strong one. On the first listen, I was tempted to suggest replacing it with
Grief Chapter, then closing the album out with
Forever. On second appraisal, I noticed that despite multiple possibilities of sufficiently introducing the thematic direction, there is a stark difference that comes with this choice. Beginning with a solemn acceptance of the presence of grief through loss in the life of a conscious being, of its unavoidability, then concluding this exploration with a stifled cry for the big eternal would give the listener quite the different perception of the great abyss than the order of songs actually chosen. Introducing life's most unconquerable conflict in a tongue-in-cheek, almost sarcastic way presents us with another perspective entirely. We return to the human telos nonetheless, but we can revel in the certainty as soon as we accept it, and dare I say, have fun on the way that leads straight to decay.
This joy rising out of ambivalence is one of the greatest achievements of Mother Mother, showing itself in their varied soundscapes, spoken word quips, layered production, and witty lyrics. While their lineup includes mostly conventional instrumentation with the inclusion of the one or other banjo or fun synthesiser, the way vocal duties are handled is an absolute stand-out in that regard. Having expressive backing vocals on tracks helmed by Ryan Guldemond extends the palette of emotional tone considerably, and the handing over of lead to Molly Guldemond especially in
Forever makes both the shift in atmosphere and the clarity of its self-contained message much more poignant. Textures are played with in an excellent trade-off between different production techniques, creating nothing less but an immersive and engaging experience that demands attention.
And here we are, back at the other end of a gradient: Attention comes in many forms, and while there is value in both short term, reified cutural symbols that act as shortcuts for information, and embedded, multilayered, cognitively longlasting patterns that are dependant on a more extensive framework to reiterate themselves into large scale, differentiated meaning, I'd rather have Mother Mother remembered for the latter, especially in times where this approach is slowly turning into a rarity. While our cultural equation has many solutions, this work has certainly drawn a Eureka! from me with justification. This offering stands out with a nuanced approach to a classic theme that nevertheless contains many individual highlights that work entirely out of context without being bland, embedded in a snappy, creative soundscape that understands how shifts on every level of structure and production can segment and combine to create a journey through life towards death that will have us all singing along on the way to the ultimate end.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
To My Heart
Explode!
Forever
The Matrix
