Review Summary: stay with me, and drain me all you want.
Imagine having something or someone that made you whole. Maybe it’s a person, a group of people, or maybe a comforting idyllic situation that gave you some satisfaction with yourself and the life that you live. Now imagine that ripped away from you so slow that the space between gets bigger, more uncomfortable, and so heartbreaking that you want to be sucked out via space vacuum to end that heartbreak.
With the album 'Omit', living in that dark yet beautiful nightmare never sounded so good to the human ear. While not being one to jump on the shoegaze train all that often, it's hard not to recognize the undeniably attractive quality of those reverb/delay heavy, spacey, and atmospheric tones that can sound so pleasant and dream-inducing. And Grivo nails that here.
Let me paint this track-by-track...
'Trammel' starts that outlook on the slow space that builds. Where the dark and off-distant future of this album lies. You might see the end in sight, but you don't want to acknowledge it. And then the end begins, title track 'Omit' talks of wanting someone to stay, and wondering, was there something I could've said? Something to make it all better? Yet losing all of that seems to be the inevitable outcome, and you're left on those dark endless roads that lead to the nether. 'Fatigue' pulls you in with guitar riffs and a chorus so hauntingly dark and melodic that you can't help but let yourself be taken by it. Paired with lyrics that make the heartbreak set in: "I've been sliding, you were perfect in every way, I move toward you, you just turned away." 'Fatal Blue' increases that space between. While you try so hard to swim back to that half that made you whole, you may wonder, was it ever good in the first place? Were you a parasite? Or my paradise? Yet these questions are quickly and lyrically overlooked: "Stay. I'm your host to take and drain." 'Attuned' is the stage of grief where you give into that space. Hope is fading in ever feeling this whole again. Yet you hope to hear at least a few words of that someone, lyrically put: "Hope has killed belief leaving little choice but letting go. So, it's far more attuned to be breathing just to hear the words you'll say." 'Languor', defined as the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia. Remembering all the times you had, watching them on the screen while you hear the trill of the film reel in the background. And the next day you wake up and see...that's not the reality anymore: "Wake on a cold day to find the strides of our silence have grown." With the track 'There', the space has grown so far that now you're not sure where you lie. You're blocked off from ever feeling that wholeness again. Like the lyrics pose: "I'm convinced that you were never really there." You're at the end, and now...you're content with collapsing into that endless void. That growing space where heartbreak ends, and apathy takes over.
Granted, this is one person's interpretation, but over the last year this album continues to run back in my mind as often as Nothing's 'The Great Dismal' did back in 2020. It is infectious and unrelenting in what it's trying to accomplish, and I'm more than happy to run with it. You won't find anything new here as far as musical ideas or new groundbreaking lyrics. But what is shown here in 'Omit' are those dark feelings of emptiness, grief, and apathy that can really change someone in their state of mind. And the execution of it is truly exceptional. This album won't be for everyone, just like some people aren't attracted to cinematic slow-burns as much as others. And that's okay. But do yourself a favor and don't pass this up.
