Review Summary: Drift away.
I kept trying to figure out how to write about
Meridians, but somehow couldn’t get the words down on a page. The album was enchantingly mesmerizing, and yet I couldn’t figure out how to properly convey that until I sat down with some tea in my hand and lit up a cigarette. In the relative quiet of my night (I’m in LA after all), I suddenly found it.
Meridians is an album (or really albums I should say—it’s a double LP) that embraces the concept of “less is more.” To write about one song as compared to another is an almost silly endeavor as it needs to be experienced from beginning to end. Sharply defined musicality gives way to shimmering sonic textures and soundscapes. One only needs to listen to the opening moments of “Blue Rose” to get a concept of where Fuubutsushi are going with the album. As the strikingly pretty melody of chimes plays out, the song gradually opens up like a flower in bloom. What follows is a two hour journey through a series of moments that celebrate the beauty we sometimes experience as the march of time relentlessly carries on.
Throughout the journey
Meridians takes the listener on, Fuubutsushi evoke those moments of carefree exuberance as well as the sometimes darker passages of time. The little joys and sorrows of life—the love we feel and the anxiety that cripples us—are all captured and put on display for us to experience. It is an album that can sometimes be as deeply emotional as it is relaxed and unpretentious.
Much like that unexpected moment I described above,
Meridians greatest strength lies in its ability to crystallize those small things in life that connect us to the infinite stream of time itself, and help us find solace in an otherwise turbulent and chaotic world. It’s possibly hard to appreciate when you’re stuck in the grind so maybe try it another way: Find a couple of hours in your life when you want to just get lost in your thoughts and throw it on. It just might get to you.
