Review Summary: Money is still a child on its debut, for all that’s worth.
Only in the blissfully self-contradicting phase of childhood can one transcend the numerous conflicts that come to shape personality. A child does nothing to distinguish the grand from the mundane, earnest from pretentious, or imaginative from derivative. Manchester band Money’s debut
The Shadow of Heaven is just such a child, with all the good and bad that comes with immaturity.
Born to the same urban wilderness as Joy Division, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and more, Money bears close relation to the portentous self-importance cynics often decry those bands for. It’s there in the grand, God obsessed titling (“Shadow of Heaven”, “So Long (God Is Dead)”, “Cruelty of Godliness”). It’s there in the artful black-and-white album cover reminiscent of The Smiths. Above all, it’s there in the atmospheric and dramatic music.
The Shadow of Heaven opens with the falsetto and reverb soaked instruments of “So Long”, both typical of the album as a whole. Yet contradictorily, the album is one characterized more than anything else by its warmth. Lyrics like “Not even the water can make me feel right / this cold, cold water keeps running at night” could sound ridiculous at the hands of some other, more mature artist. In the case of Money, singer Jamie Lee delivers them with a passion devoid of angst that is impossible to disregard as theatrics. The songs seethe with life: even the otherwise high-and-mighty piano ballad “Goodnight London” is brought down by an audible sneeze at its beginning. Seen in this light, all the perceived pretension proves false. The fascination with God is nothing more than naive interest in the supernatural. The cover art shows honest aspirations towards an idol. The grand scale of
The Shadow of Heaven is childhood’s inability to appreciate subtlety. Money is pervaded by a child’s earnest, uncritical belief in what it does.
The sound of
The Shadow of Heaven too approximates the blissful and dreamy landscape of youth. Yet rarely does it feel stale or intangible. For all its dream-pop leanings towards space and ambiance, Money is still a rock band. They employ not so much a wall as a wave of sound as the drums, guitar, bass, and voice ebb and flow to the back, only to return with vigor and, sometimes, menace. This much is also apparent in the pacing of the album as the calm waters of the early tracks, at their best on the bright “Bluebell Fields”, switch into the stormy middle section. The trio of “Letter To Yesterday”, “Hold Me Forever” and “Cold Water” feature crescendos that keep one-upping each other. The last of these is the album centerpiece that features a build-up to what amounts to the climax of the entire album. Thereafter
The Shadow of Heaven recedes to the meandering and stale “Cruelty of Godliness”, the weakest moment on the album right after the strongest. After one last splash with the title track “Shadow of Heaven”, the album closes with the stripped-down piano and chanted title of “Black” that doesn’t quite provide a satisfactory finish. Like a child, Money can’t maintain focus to the very end.
That very feeling of “almost there” is the only major fault of the album. Other than the disappointing ending, it manifests itself in the songwriting which on the quieter moments doesn’t feel up to par. “Goodnight London”, the other piano ballad on
The Shadow of Heaven, fails to impress as a composition to warrant its 7 minute length, and is carried almost completely by the vocals which are boyishly vulnerable and strained. The album also lacks a surprising moment which would suggest a new avenue for Money to explore in the future. Money does its thing very well, but it doesn’t do all that many things.
While not perfect,
The Shadow of Heaven is in many ways just what a debut is meant to be: Free before the burdens of expectations, captivating as a fresh start, promising but flawed. Thankfully, the very flaw found on
The Shadow of Heaven appears to be its greatest promise. If there is nothing wrong with Money but childishness, the inescapable arrival of maturity sooner or later promises a fix.
