"There is no soul there!" Björk - Vespertine Album Review

Björk breathes life and soul into the electronic, infusing an abundance of personality and heart to that which is often criticised of being lifeless on her album Vespertine, mixing both the coldness of electronic and dance music with the more abstract and warm sounds of art pop, perfectly blending them to create an album that is equal parts personal, vulnerable, catchy and experimental, by exposing her inner self and seemingly putting everything of herself into a computer. This album is bursting with life, teeming with personality and takes a hold of you, pulling you into Björk's world to fully understand her way of thinking. The songs are beautifully composed, using the often 'thin' aspects of an electronic or techno sound, but laced with strings, choirs and even samples of orchestras which feel live to give the album a real warmth and depth; Björk has plugged a beating human heart into her computer with Vespertine and the songs are what surface as she plugs it into her a computer, a DVD or CD player, a piece of recording equipment to keep it alive. 

"Through the warmest cord of care / Your love was sent to me / I'm not sure what to do with it / Or where to put it" Hidden Place

Björk has a way of  describing the way that she feels with descriptions that are so unique to her, and creates a distinctive perspective unlike anyone else, as many songs on this album that are about love are not ordinary love songs, as Vespertine begins with the song Hidden Place. This song includes the first instance of the motif of glitchy samples and the extremely bass-y drum machine sounds mixed with the more humanist instruments, as slowly a choir of harmonies is added to create this eerie atmosphere as the song reaches the chorus, as the high flying strings effortlessly sweep in, along with more sampled percussion, transforming the song entirely! This mantra of 'cold verse' into 'warm' chorus is repeated throughout Vespertine, very effectively, and whilst I think that Hidden Place is not the strongest example of this, I think that the beauty of this song is in its lyrics. The "hidden place" is a place where love exists; a place of, not just her own making, but created by her and the person she is in a relationship with. This place is somewhere where Björk feels safe and capable of expressing the true experience of love, unlike in the outside world: this love is so pure that she cannot even express what it means, and even if she could, it would simply not be understood anywhere but in this hidden place. This feeling is so intense that she must hide it away, and she doesn't know what to do with it so she keeps it here, where she knows best and knows it will be safe.

"There lies my passion / There lies my love / I'll hide it under a blanket / Lull it to sleep" Hidden Place

As a philosophy student (who just learned about this two weeks ago) I feel like I draw comparisons from the lyrics of this song to Immanuel Kant's "Analytic of the Beautiful", where Kant states that art, natural beauty, music, poetry etc can be a gateway to experiencing the truly beautiful, but the beautiful is merely a feeling. Many people get wrapped up in what art they think is beautiful but is actually, rather, agreeable, meaning that it is pleasant to you specifically or good, meaning it has some kind of practical use. As Kant states, for the beautiful to be beautiful, it must be experienced by everyone, as it is undeniable and it also does not need the art itself, as it is all to do with the feeling. I get a strong feeling that the "hidden place" Björk speaks of is similar to this feeling: hard to understand to the outside world but once the hidden place has been experienced, it is so pure that it needs no explanation.

The word vespertine relates to occurring in the evening (from the Latin, vespertinus, which comes from vesper, meaning evening), as Björk, in my reading of the album, wants this album to be experienced in the evening. She creates another mantra of her own little space, perhaps where she made this album and perhaps where it is supposed to be enjoyed in the evening, although is not limited to the evening itself. I believe that vespertine is simply a feeling that feels like evening but is not specific to it. In comparison to its predecessor album Homogenic, which is great because of its larger than life and dramatic style, this album is so much more personal and small and whilst I do love Homogenic and think it is also a perfect album of Björk's, the more intimate nature and the tactual nature of Vespertine is more interesting to me, it feels like you can really pick this album up with your hands.

I want to return to the notion of the contrasting cold and warm on this album with one of my favourite moments: the song It's Not Up To You. This song is honestly the main reason I decided to write this review; this song is perfect and I can't remember the last time I heard a song as good as this and the use of the contrast again is incredible, as when the chorus comes in it is so powerful and also somehow extremely catchy, showcasing, again, Björk's ear for pop music as well as the more experimental. The lyrics on this song perhaps contradict the message of the album, as the theme is of the idea of control, and how wanting control of everything will ultimately end up hurting you. Perhaps Vespertine is Björk's closest experience to full control, yet she still recognises that even within the things she thinks she can have total control over, she cannot; there will always be an element of chaos within all things, even that which is closest to her. 

"If you leave it alone / It might just happen / Anyway/ It's not up to you, oh it never really was" It's Not Up To You

One of the more sombre and intimate moments on the album, is Cocoon, the rawness and emotion on this song is immediately apparent and unshielded by any unnecessary instrumentation or sound. It feels as though she is speaking to us directly about her experiences. This song, along with Undo, come as something as a pair in my eyes, with Undo being slightly more sonically diverse, with a drum beat driving the song forward, but it feels almost as though you can hear her whispering the lyrics directly into your ear. An Echo A Stain  also fits into this category of rawness, however this track being a lot more eerie and leaves you with a pit in your stomach. An Echo A Stain has moments of dance music with driving kick drums, mixed with unnerving synths as it feels like you're falling, deeper and deeper into ice. 

Pagan Poetry is another electronically human song on the album, as Björk slowly begins to give up control. This theme is prominent and we see a real vulnerability to her, as she is genuinely scared of not having it. As the beautiful instrumentation of this song begins to cut out, we hear her vocals repeating over and over again, eerily saying:

"I love him / I love him / I love him / I love him" Pagan Poetry

As this slowly divulges into: 

"She loves him (But he makes me want to hand myself over)" Pagan Poetry

as she gives into that which she fears the most, the surrendering of her autonomy.

After Pagan Poetry, we get to the beautiful interlude Frosti into the song Aurora, which has one of the best melodies of any song on the album with what sounds like a harp playing in the background. Björk's production isn't the only thing that should be focused on, as her voice and vocal presentation are perfect, as it is clear she has the ear for what makes a great pop song, as vocal melodies like that do shine through occasionally, but she really does prefer the weirder melodies where its almost impossible to follow, but is just so unique to her. That being said, the contrast is great as those more harmonic melodies do hit so much harder when choruses like that finally come in.

"I tumbled down / On my knees / Fill the mouth / With snow" Aurora

The strings on the back half of this album really do just accentuate how beautiful Björk's songwriting is, as I think this is the highlight for songs like Sun In My Mouth, Harm of Will and the closing track Unison. The ending to this album is huge, the swelling string section along with Björk's wailing vocals, almost shouting but never quite reaching that volume, are just beautiful. There are so many layers to all of these songs it really makes it impossible not to just put the album back on again. 

Heirloom is a track that leans more towards Björk's previous albums, being slightly more dance inspired with a driving bassline and drums, but again sticks to the motif of Vespertine, making it extremely interesting, by pushing the boundary of the album itself, by including breakbeat drums, but never fully regressing back to her previous work's and keeping things new. The synths are beautiful on this song and pair amazingly with her voice, and these both contrast with the drum and bass sounds.

Vespertine is a deeply personal album, Björk wears all of her emotions on her sleeve and combines the poetic expression of herself with her influences of art pop and electronic music, melding the two seemingly un-fusable aspects of her music effortlessly into a project that is equal parts, cold, jagged and experimental and equal parts, warm, beautiful and homely. Björk's need to create an album that's intended purpose was to be listened to in the comfort of one's home forces her to reflect on what home is for her. Vespertine is not just an album, its a feeling, the feeling of comfort, or as comfortable as one can be within life with the knowledge that one can never be truly comfortable. Björk knows that perhaps this album is not as alluring as something with more drama like her previous records, but this album feels less like Björk trying to push the boundaries, and more like her simply doing it because she has no other choice; this album simply could not be made by anyone else. Vespertine forces us to realise that beauty is not as presentable as it seems and that sometimes we need to put time and effort into finding something as transient, but when we are able to find it, we should hold onto it, well, at least for as long as we can.

"I find it so amazing when people tell me that electronic music has no soul. You can't blame the computer. If there's no soul in the music then it's because nobody put it there"

RATING: 10/10

FAVOURITE SONGS: It's Not Up To You, Unison, Aurora, Hidden Place, Heirloom.

LEAST FAVOURITE SONGS: NONE, THIS ALBUM IS PERFECT.

LISTEN HERE:

Björk

What I've Been Listening To - 26/09/2023

A lot of September has had me reflecting on music I used to listen to a loooooong time ago, when I first started to get out of only listening music recommended by elders or pop charts,(not that there isn't a few great gems in there, but it does feel good to get to that age and start to finally develop your own taste). Say what you want about the internet but it's a great way to discover new music. The album that sticks out most for me would definitely have to be Dusk by The The. I remember reading Johnny Marr's autobiography to find out about this one. I think it was sometime soon after leaving / breaking up The Smiths, he found comfort in his friend Matt Johnson, who was creating all of his music by himself I believe. Marr adds so much character to this record and its actually quite refreshing to see him used as almost a session musician, I don't know what it is about him after leaving The Smiths but his work is extremely hit and miss, and let's not even talk about his solo career.... (Sorry Johnny), especially on songs like Slow Emotion Replay, his guitar work is so funky. Anyway, here's one of my favourite tracks from the album but I would definitely recommend listening to the whole thing back to front, gives a great insight into Johnson and the death of his brother, with Marr's harmonica (which he played while crying his eyes out) on this track, it's just full of emotion! Just a solid album with great songwriting and at some points is quite theatrical, check it out!

Another BLAST from the past for me is a band that honestly does not get nearly the respect they deserve. Yes they're corny and yes they have Phil Collins in the band but Genesis are just one of those bands that you can't really fault. As far as I can remember, this was the first album I had ever bought with my own money, I had had a few passed down from my dad and my grandad but they were never really my choice, because I used to love the song Misunderstanding, from the album Duke. I remember seeing it in a car boot sale for probably about two quid and knew I wanted to buy it. I didn't even have a record player but even just having it for the artwork on the front really felt like it was worth it enough, even if I never really listened to the album. There was something about it that was very cool. Misunderstanding is still one of my favourites from the album, but after listening to it all the way through for the first time I absolutely adored Duchess, a six minute epic track that just blew my mind so it has to go as my second pick.

This next band is one that I just have wanted to talk about for so long. They fit so well into this new wave of post punk bands, being funky, weird and experimental, but also they're quite pop rock-y, a perfect blend between the two! I saw this band within the first few weeks that I moved to university, after buying their record a few months prior and just fell in love with them. Pom Poko are seriously underrated and if you haven't heard their latest album Cheater, you are seriously missing out. It's bouncy, it's fun, it's energetic, the singing is super high pitched and weird and the guitars sound insaaaaaaane. Their live sound translates perfectly to the album and is just so much fun, I'd highly highly recommend checking out the entire album, but the tracks I've chosen are the title track Cheater and Danger Baby. DB seemingly doesn't have as much energy as the rest of the album, but once it gets into the groove it's just so fun and the guitar sounds almost silly, but still is such a beautiful song. Cheater is just such a perfect album opener, with stops and starts and crazy sounding guitars and towards the end it just crescendos into another really cool riff. Really cannot recommend this band enough.

Moving away from the nostalgia driven songs I've been biasedly picking so far, I'll move into a different genre entirely. This album is obviously a pretty standard album in terms of classic jazz records and I wouldn't be surprised if lots of people knew this, but it is so popular for a reason. It's genre-bending, and I would assume at the time this blew a lot of people's minds in terms of the contemporary jazz music at the time. I am of course talking about Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock. The song that I have chosen, Sly, is one that takes you on such a journey throughout the 10 minute runtime and will leave your head spinning. This type of jazz music, the crazy and the chaotic, for me is really the only way to go in terms of the genre, and this track is the best of its kind.

It's difficult, at the moment, for me to talk about any other kind of music or bands without mentioning black midi. For me this month, and the past few have been all about this band; nothing even comes close for me. They have so much unreleased music, which are some of my favourite songs of there's, that is not on a studio album it just leaves me wanting the fourth album more and more. It's hard to say anything about black midi that hasn't already been said, but they are crazy, but also hypnotic and I have not heard a more interesting band than them in a very long time. I'm choosing a live version of one of their unreleased tracks, Magician, as it quickly becomes my favourite of theirs, with Greep deciding to take a more serious approach to his lyrics and songwriting, as builds and builds with beautiful chords and incredible drumming, and a studio track of theirs, Speedway, which, despite its more restrained nature compared to the other tracks on Schlagenheim, is infectous. I would recommend listening to these guys' live shows as they offer such a different style compared to their studio recordings.

My last pick is a song that has been popular for quite a while now, but doesn't get old at all for me, every time I listen to this song I just can't stop and have to put it on repeat. Kali Uchis is such an incredible singer and the bassline of this song is just such an incredible basis for all of the elements of the song to encase around. The chorus with the drum breaks and xylophone playing are just unmatched, if you haven't already heard this one, which I would assume is impossible, you need to appreciate it.

To finish this off I will link my September playlist so you can see all the rest of the tracks I've been listening to recently, and also link a playlist that I made with songs that I loved growing up or songs that make me feel like that.

:P

A few mentions of other highlights for this post:

Big Business / I Zimbra (Live) - Talking Heads
30000 Megatons - Pond
Quand Vas Tu Rentrer - Melody's Echo Chamber
Pirate Jet - Gorillaz
Born For Loving You - Big Thief
Tell Me What I Don't Know - Danny Brown
Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones
Woodward Avenue - Yusef Lateef
Leave The Capitol - The Fall
Penitentiary Philosophy - Erykah Badu

"This is mine" - Jean Jacques Rousseau's 'Private Property' Britain

 

Under the Conservative government in the UK, immigrants have been consistently vilified and marginalised since the first non-British person set foot on ‘our’ land. The claim that Britain should be for the British and that we should be proud to own our own country, not opening our opportunities and liberties to anyone but those that look identical to ourselves is not a new concept.

It would do the British people good if they were to ignore the propaganda being forced upon them by a conservative , property-driven government and to think for themselves by taking this argument that ‘immigration is a bad thing’ to its natural conclusion of the empty, desolate lack of culture that would exist in Britain without immigration, and to forget their ‘God-given’ blessing of simply being born British and the unjust pride that comes with it, “you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody”₁ is a quote from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality that should be better understood in the Western world. There is a strange sense of entitlement that the British seem to cling onto from the moment that they learn where they are from that denies the existence of anyone that dares to come over to this country and make it any better than it already is. The British conservative government in control of this country at the moment are doing everything in their power, both culturally and legally, to keep anyone remotely different to them out, as Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, called for “Lower immigration, and suggested more British people should be trained to do jobs commonly done by overseas workers”₂.

The establishment of property, according to Rousseau, is the root of all inequality and that by nature all humans are peaceful and have little capabilities for making reasonable decisions; the civil society that has emerged from the slow evolution from the state of nature man originated from is where the inequality has birthed. The slow progression from, man first claiming a piece of land and claiming, “this is mine” ₁, into the formation of tribes in which humanity learned to socialise turned slowly into full ownership of those claiming private property for themselves, “Where there is no property, there is no injury”₁. From this socialisation came a sense of relation comparisons between one another, comparing who was stronger or weaker, faster or slower, bigger or smaller, etc. When these characteristics became apparent, humans living in their societies became aware of their superiority over not just other animals but the people living around them. Rousseau is trying to say that once humans work together and the division of labour is created then equality no longer exists, as they become dependent on one another. The way that our society, and most societies around the world, operate, under a capitalistic system, is that that those slight indifferences, that were apparent in early stages of society has been expanded and exploited to the furthest possible extent, creating a difference in wealth, wellbeing and privileges bigger than has ever been recorded in history, and yet continues to grow bigger, the quote from Rousseau “when estates become so multiplied in number and extent as to cover the whole of the land… no estate could be enlarged except at the expense of its neighbour”₁ highlights this point best. The want for this country to hold onto what we have over helping those less fortunate than us (many due to our own actions during the British Empire), is all encompassing; it is a notion that helps only the top percentage of wealth owners, and the Conservative party have managed to convince those it will not benefit, that it in fact will. The indoctrination of the poor to this ideology that they should not support their fellow common man is astounding, the fact that the UK government has them basically doing their job for them without having to implement laws to prevent immigration, they simply spread propaganda about how their jobs are being stolen and that this country is great. Once a person who is no wiser, than this clear act of brainwashing, gets this idea in their head, the Conservatives no longer have to work as they will spread the message for them!

The conservatives pledged in their 2019 manifesto to bring down the overall number of migrants coming to the UK, of which prime minister of Great Britain, Rishi Sunak has recently reiterated that this promise still stands, despite the number of migrants increasing since 2019 by over 274,000₂. Overlooking the argument of the culture that is brought to the country by immigrants, this number has increased in recent years due to the war between Ukraine and Russia, yet Sunak defends and repeats the sentiment that non-British people are still unwelcome, no matter the circumstance. Rousseau states that once men had fully developed society and had little need for their skills to be used in the natural world anymore, they would turn to dominion over one another, he states “I do not see how it can be inferred of men in a state of nature, who could not easily be brought to conceive what we mean by dominion and servitude”₁; the inequality at a man’s most natural level is non-existent, as the chains of the modern man, i.e. their possessions, tie them down and make it so they have something to lose. Once man feels the status these chains of possessions have brought him, he must make it known that he is above those who do not have possessions, and can far more easily exploit those below him as they do not have chains themselves, and therefore have nothing to lose and all to gain; those less fortunate are put in a position where they must take anything they can get, to acquire the chains of possession which, in the modern world, are the currency for all things, power and status, “One man, it is true, might seize the fruits which another had gathered, the game he had killed, or the cave he had chosen for shelter; but how would he ever be able to exact obedience, and what ties of dependence could there be among men without possessions?”₁. Those living in impoverished, war stricken and third world countries have their status symbol removed by this very system, built by the west, and when they look for reparations, or simply charity, from the very perpetrators of their misfortune, they are turned away yet again.

This is exactly the way that conservative, right-wing governments operate, not basing their oppression upon any of the characteristics, but simply base their superiority on chance of birthplace. The only thing that one needs to prove their precedence over another is the location of where you happen to be born, if this happens to be within the prestigious nation of the United Kingdom, great! However, if you’re unlucky enough to be born outside the strict borders of our sacred country, then unlucky for you, unfortunately you would have lost the lottery to become a person that is respected by the western world. The logic of superiority within this country goes beneath the reasoning of Rousseau’s primitive man.

Rousseau states, “In proportion as they grew enlightened, they grew industrious. They ceased to fall asleep under the first tree or in the first cave that afforded them shelter”₁. This initial push that enhanced the industrious instincts of man was never supressed; the further and further man pushed for  industrial progression, the more the productivity increased and the sociality and care for others decreased. There was an extremely small window where it was possible for man to make this decision, but the greed took over and eventually snowballed and snowballed until it created the inhumane gap between our fellow humans that has ever been. The UK was built upon blood and oppression, but this is the version of Britain that we do not see, the reason we are so successful and stable as our own country is only due to the mistreatment of others. This is something that the Conservative party dare not to talk about due to fear of the common brit realising that their heritage is not actually something to be proud of, but rather the opposite; we should be ashamed of what our country has done to others and attempt to create reparations for those less fortunate as ourselves. For Sunak to state that allowing refugees and asylum seekers is unacceptable, the bare minimum to save lives from poverty and war, inadvertently caused by ourselves or not, is shameful. The issue of other people’s pain is something that must be swept under the rug and ignored by our government to justify that they treat other human beings; it feels somewhat strange to have to point out the fact that these people are actually human beings, as the way they’ve been treated is far from that.

After the initial state of the primitive man, according to Rousseau, Man begins to change its priorities. After so long of wandering around the wilderness on their own, gradually start to come together, uniting in groups by “customs and character – not by rules and laws”₁ for the first time. This is the most beneficial state of Man during its transition into a more socialised creature, but again this concept was pushed to its absolute limit, and again the greed that is slowly generated is spread throughout the whole of the system throughout the world, and the cultures and humans go the other way, so far the other way in fact that we are now pushing our fellow people out of our country back to their ‘own country’ to save our jobs and leave them fighting in wars or against poverty, or of course to solve all of the problems in their ‘own country’ before bringing them overseas to ruin ours!

The British Conservative Party is cruel and unrelenting to anyone that is different to themselves, anyone that is unfortunate enough to be born outside of our own border, in a country desecrated by our own people, anyone that is unfortunate to have a different skin colour or look slightly different to ‘one of our own’. Rousseau’s theory of private property may have been formulated hundreds of years ago, yet it not only rings true today, but has been true for so long it has outdone itself and created inequality on the largest scale ever recorded in human history, and growing bigger every day! The UK tory government are synonymous with Rousseau’s common man, unwilling to socialise with those outside his own inner circle, but reap the benefits of the socialisation of man, pushed to its extreme limits, at the behest of those who simply got there first and claimed the crown, ignorant of all their closest neighbours and allies, as the want to take more and more, as the fruit that they have collected themselves overtakes their morals. The Conservative government have claimed “this is mine”₁ to Britain and will not give an inch to anyone who stands in the way of progress to turn the western world into a capitalistic hellscape.

 

Bibliography

1.) Rousseau, J.J. (1984) A Discourse on Inequality. Penguin Classics. England: Penguin Books.

2.) (2023) ‘Legal migration is too high, says Rishi Sunak’ BBC News. May 19.

The Frustration Behind Do Nothing's, Snake Sideways - Album Review

Snake Sideways is an album of juxtapostion; an album of contentment, yet also dissatisfaction; of straight forward, conventionally written music, yet also free from the boundaries of structure at points. The album by Nottingham band, Do Nothing, deals with issues of work, resentment and the daily mundanity of day to day life, as the title suggests a position of lateral movements, yet somewhere within this jaded outlook on life there is hope within the smaller details. The album is broken and wonky, yet also catchy and bizarrely danceable.

 The album, right out of the gate, starts with high energy and the instantly recognisable singles Nerve and Happy Feet, with their captivating riffs and their way of being strangely danceable in a way that can feel unnatural but the songs have an infectious and melodic way of gripping you. After the two big hitters, Snake Sideways slows down into a different gear with the electronic, drum-driven title track, with the beat unexpectedly switching up at points to throw you off, but ends up becoming an extremely pretty track with the reverb soaked guitars providing ambience in the background. 

Many of the riffs, guitar lines and melodies on Snake Sideways tend to follow a fairly punctual progression, ones that don't stick out too much outside of their respective keys, but then, as if hitting the guitar out of annoyance, one, or maybe a few, off-putting notes are thrown in just to change the flow and feel of a track. This motif is recurring throughout all of Snake Sideways and it's one that can throw you off at times, but also creates this seamless blend between the wonky, distorted sounds of new wave bands and the conventional indie or pop driven songs. Conventional in the case of Do Nothing, however, is not an insult, as combined with the weirder sounds on the album, the song-writing itself is extremely clever and consistent; the hooks on this album are just perfectly crafted and I challenge anyone listening to songs like Nerve to get the choruses out of your head, as the acoustic guitar comes crashing in and the soaring vocals come in with a refrain that is probably the most infectious of the year:

"What did you just call me? / Where'd you get the nerve?"  Nerve

There is recurring theme on this album of work, the dreariness that is present in lots of the songs represents this perfectly, with an occasional, seemingly angry, outburst of high pitch, screaming vocals that contrast the more spoken word sections perfectly, at the distaste of having to avoid their passion for being a creative, and then the mundane returns, seemingly from their lunch break, to the conformity of their job that has to get them through their day to day life after being pushed down for their moment of rebellion by their bosses:

"That man can go fuck himself / I'm going on my break right now / I don't care what he says...
A yellow strip light, gonna smile on down / Saying 'let them have a fourty share / Hallelujah, allez Argos."  The Needle

Throughout this album, I often found that the pre choruses can be just as catchy as the actual chorus, as is true here with The Needle, the acoustic guitar slowly comes in to accompany the disdain shown in these lyrics, into the satirised, witty one liner "Hallelujah, allez Argos", as the backing, slightly distorted, rhythm guitars slowly come in to finish the cascade of the chorus. This album gives the impression that it has been entirely written on a way to work, or in the little free time that they have left to be creative outside of their jobs on their two year hiatus since their last EP, Glueland:

"We worked for a long time / Now we are coming home with our dicks in our hands / You're just staring at the air above me / Like somethings coming in to land"  Moving Target

It is impossible to stop talking about the songwriting on this album, as they perfectly blend tension and release into moments that are just so visceral and personal, like my personal favourite song Fine, starting out with its pitched down, sleepy vocals and electronic drum pattern and as the overdriven bass starts to creep its way in, you can feel the song slowly and slowly build, with each section complimenting the next until the vocals switch into the upper register as he shouts, over beautifully melodic guitar notes:

"Beat yourself up for a while! / Then it's time to move on / The free drinks say it all"  Fine

And with no hesitation, a new, groovier bass line kicks straight in, switching the electronic bass and drums for live ones and the crooked guitar riff picks up the energy, only for it to be stripped back to the previous section, but in this case keeping these live instruments, building up the tension to release it once again. This song is a vicious cycle of lively and pretty instrumentation interwoven into each other at a moments notice and never stops being interesting to listen to.

The tracks written with more energy for the clubs the band will be playing them to, however, don't overshadow the more melodic and slow songs like Ivy, Hollywood Learn and Moving Target. My only gripe with the album is that it doesn't end here, with Moving Target, while Sunshine State is a solid song with some great riffs interwoven, it seems slightly shoehorned into the tracklist and forces the album to end on a song that overstays its welcome, as, in my opinion, the most uninteresting song on the album. These collection of slower songs, however, are filled with witty one liners, very pretty chords, mainly on either a piano or keyboard as opposed to the guitar-heavy songs that fill the majority of the album. While the building of these songs is more linear, this does not take away from the incredible songwriting that is apparent on all of these songs. These three tracks are beautiful in the sense that they are broken; there is a discord in the sounds and chords that are used and a jadedness in the lyrics, a feeling of finally lying down as there is nothing else to do, yet somehow they push forward. They build and build and towards the end there is a release of the band coming together in an understated way, but one that is still powerful. 

"I remember drinking with my friends / I remember nearly drowning in the bath / Some people dress up and go and find the future / Others just drool over the past"  Moving Target

RATING: 9.5/10
FAVOURITE SONGS: Fine, Amoeba, Hollywood Learn, Nerve, The Needle.
LEAST FAVOURITE SONG: Sunshine State.

"I'll tie a cable / Around my feet / So that I don't have to dance with you tonight / …

I stay at home and watch a movie / Then accidentally die / Licking butter off a knife"

LISTEN HERE: 

DO NOTHING