Review Summary: "It Survived, it survived, it survived"
Is there anyway I can say this without appearing bias, or even starstruck. No there is only one unfiltered way to say it. I love A Lot Like Birds! The short time they've been in my life has been amazing. The true embodiment of every single little thing I enjoy about music. Whether its the atmospheric musicianship, top notch vocals, or eccentric lyrical style of harsh vocalist Cory Lockwood this band just speaks to me. So here it comes, No Place a concept record based around the idea of representing the rooms inside of a house through individual songs. I will admit to it right here right now this is possibly my favourite record of all time.
In Trances. A beautiful, post-rock inspired piece with some well placed drum machine claps opens the album up. Short & sweet while the listener is guided through the track by Cory. I understand not everyone likes the spoken word pieces. I find them one of the best quality's of the album, & even would say id wish there were more. Nonetheless, not being a spoken word fan really shouldn't derail you from any track especially with the lyrics being as good as they are but more on that later.
Now we hit No Nature and No Nurture. The former being a schizophrenic carnival of screaming, gritty melodies, & fun loving instrumentals. The latter a slow moving, beautiful track about abandonment by a father figure. This track has some of my favourite lyrics on the record telling the tale of how a son feels toward his missing father: "Well, I had a technicolor father with mechanical parts and an on and off heart switch.
And he snapped all our plugs, dragged them out through the doorway like electrical entrails.
As they dangled behind him, intestinal, wormlike, I grabbed one and sank in my teeth.
It showed no signs of life". A tear jerker. Then Next To Ungodliness comes and screamed right in your ear. Short and sweet, an easy track to get hooked on.
Connector is defiantly one of the heavy weight tracks on this album with many hooks & highlights thrown into the 6 minute epic. I find tracks like this, Kuroi Ledge, and Shaking of The Frame feel very large. Reminding me A lot of older songs like Vanity's Fair or What Didn't Kill Me Just Got Stronger. But the songs now feel more concentrated, like all of ALLB's insanity is focused into a single, indestructible point. Myth of Lasting Sympathy is a nice interlude which let's Cory be more brutally honest then he's ever been before. Lines like " Because while we grow up through song and story learning that love is everything in this world and that while we believe it and want it more than any single thing...I know that when we have it, we destroy it. That when we grow up, you and I, that we cheat. That we find the girl we love and that we lose her because we learn to love ourselves much more. That the friends that we make will drift away once we have leeched them dry. That the mother who turned our darkened scary hallways into pathways to a bedroom will call us and miss us and love us and we will stay hidden." That show a side that is vulnerable and hurt, bringing emotions out that are simply unreal.
With Hand Over Mouth,Over and Over following a mostly instrumental lead for half the track before Kurt and Cory come in , and a very heartfelt approach lyrically as well as melodically and Kuroi Ledge which feels like a musical manifestation of cold air blowing through a balcony (lol) you are left to believe ALLB has gone soft. That is quickly ripped into tiny sized shreds as Recluse shows more of that grimy,Guttery aggression yet still throwing in some horn sections when it can. We then end with Shaking of The Frame, a track that manages to feel anthemic yet still humble. The last lines Cory screams, which paint an image of the house off the album cover Turning on its axis and vanishing into thin air, makes you feel emersed in the story crafted before your eyes. Ending with the words "It Survived". A true sense of peace is felt at the end, like a grand journey coming to an end.
This is not an accessible record at all. Any reason someone wouldn't like this record is not placed on the band, but personal taste. So because of this I feel it is worthy of a perfect grade. This is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but I sincerely recommend you give this album a listen as soon as you can.
