May 2016 Mixtape: Old Habits Made New
Sat, Jun 4, 2016#35 Old Habits Made New
This month celebrates a welcome return to old habits.
A number of years ago I used to treat all new music releases as something that would require my full and undivided attention. I would simply lie down on my bed with the accompanying booklet in hand and read the lyrics or appreciate the artwork, with no other distractions. I suppose that habit fizzled out as a result of the gradual decline of the physical medium for me.
Since I started my Spotify premium subscription back in 2012, I tend not to buy any physical releases until I have listened to them and assessed whether they are worth owning. Most of my first listens now take place during my commute to work, where you lose that magic of devoting your full attention to a release that you’ve been anticipating for months. Despite Spotify giving me the opportunity to discover and try so much music, I am connecting with albums a lot less than I did when I purchased a handful of them a month and gave them all the time they deserved.
I decided to change it up this month with two of the most important releases in recent memory for me, with new albums from The Hotelier and Thrice. I did not purchase them, but I decided to be patient and avoid listening to them on release day, so that I could devote time to each release over the weekend.
I spent Saturday lying down on my bed listening to the new Thrice album with all the windows open and the cold air blowing through the room, and I enjoyed it so much that I played it through twice. I gave The Hotelier a slightly different treatment and opted to switch my phone off and go for a walk in the forest as the sun began to set. Both experiences have left huge lasting impressions on me and I feel that for the first time in a very long time that I am able to remember what I was doing and how I was feeling the first time that I connected with a new album.
It feels great to escape the daily grind every now and again and I am excited to turn this old habit in to something new as I explore a whole new horizon of music.
Five in Focus
1. “Geneva” by Russian Circles
Nearly everyone I know who has heard Russian Circles refers to them as the band that could soundtrack the end of the world. “Geneva” is an excellent example of this, as it sounds as though it is lifted directly from a disaster movie. The opening 2 minutes play out like a pursuit, with a menacing and steady build until the guitars break in to a gallop and you can feel the pace quicken. The chaos then unfolds as the cymbals come crashing in and the guitars begin to swirl around in distort, placing you in the eye of the storm. As the instruments begin to dissipate one by one, you feel as though you catch your breath for a few seconds. Then Brian Cook introduces that huge stabbing bassline at the 02:22 mark, which wields enough power to be capable of trepanation.
“Geneva” is an absolute leviathan of a song. Witnessing this live at dunk!festival was an unforgettable moment, and one of the many reasons why Russian Circles were my top pick of the festival. I am now waiting eagerly for their new album “Guidance”, which is due for release on August 5th.
2. “Dizzy” by Jimmy Eat World
At the start of the month chorus.fm published an article entitled “The Ultimate Jimmy Eat World Setlist”. It was a highly enjoyable read that celebrated the exceptional discography of Jimmy Eat World, attempting to squeeze the best songs for a live performance setting in to an 80 minute playlist. Any fan of Jimmy Eat World will appreciate how difficult this is and somehow the author Craig Ismaili was able to do this in a way that satisfied most members of the chorus.fm community, including myself.
I’ve still yet to make my own version of the playlist, but “Dizzy” would undoubtedly be deserving of a place. It is a triumphant song that soars in both a live and recorded setting and boasts some of the greatest lyrics Jim Adkins has ever put to paper. I can no more than justify the reason for its placement by copying Craig Isimaili in quoting the bridge:
“I told you as I hovered, “I’ve never felt this way.”
You said, “I have the shot that stops my clock, baby its okay.”
You said you’d never have regrets.
Jesus, is there someone yet who got that wish?
Did you get yours, babe?”- “Dizzy” by Jimmy Eat World
3. “Piano Player” by The Hotelier
“Piano Player” was the first song to be teased from The Hotelier’s new album, “Goodness”. I initially met it with trepidation, confused by their decision to let the vocals sit so low in the mix, as I consider the vocals and lyrics of Christian Holden to be the component that make their 2014 album, “Home, Like Noplace is There”, one of my all-time favourite albums.
Holden penned an open letter a few months back addressing the fans and telling them to listen to “Goodness” with an entirely open mind. “Goodness” is a celebratory record of love and life, it is not an extension of the cathartic “Home, Like Noplace is There”, and nor should it be. “Home” was an exorcism that has led The Hotelier in to an entirely new and positive phase of their lives that I am more than happy to join them in as a fan.
I took Holden’s advice and listened to “Goodness” for the first time without the weight of any expectation and an entirely open mind. I decided to go for a walk in Epping Forest without any direction in mind and switched off all mobile communication. It was a beautiful 47 minutes and the album felt like a natural companion to the stunning views of the evening sun-soaked forest with birds flying overhead and wild flowers in bloom. I believe it is how The Hotelier had intended most people to experience the album, and I’m glad that I took the time to do so.
It is far too early to tell what I think of the album as a whole, but I am already excited to listen again and feel this will serve as a fitting soundtrack to the wonderful summer months ahead.
4. “Salt and Shadow” by Thrice
There is no better feeling than when an album lives up to the hype. After hearing “Blood in the Sand” and “Black Honey” and watching a few of the in-studio videos, I felt primed for the new album and decided to ignore any more teasers and just wait patiently for the full album. It was worth the wait.
The hiatus has been nothing if not kind to Thrice. I still consider them to be one of my favourite bands, but I had admittedly lost a lot of interest in them with “Beggars” and “Major/Minor”, and didn’t greet their hiatus with much sadness as I felt that we had already seen the best of Thrice. This new album has proved that theory wrong, as this boasts some of the best songs they’ve ever written.
“Salt and Shadow” is one of those songs. It acts as a stunning closing track that epitomises the album title of “To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere” with its lyrical content.
“On the edge of a knife, it’s like you’re living your life on the stage.
You’re talking through glass, we’re just square photographs on a page.
Oh, we’re never alone but we’re each in our own little cage.”- “Salt and Shadow” by Thrice
The lyrics paint a picture of a person who is living in the “everywhere” of the Internet through their mobile device, rather than being present in the now with those that they are physically with. They are more concerned with broadcasting their lives to others and embracing the celebrity status that they feel in sharing their lives with the world. It is a poignant and thought-provoking song that weaves nicely with my own feelings towards technological ubiquity.
5. “Just Another Face” by Modern Baseball
I feel as though I have finally got rid of that horrible habit of feeling that certain artists are “guilty pleasures”. This has affected my enjoyment of so many talented artists, as I did not give them the attention they deserved (see Paramore, Lorde and Linkin Park). Modern Baseball were strangely one of those bands that I considered to be a guilty pleasure, simply because they wrote playful lyrics and appeal to a teenage fanbase.
It genuinely surprised me when I reached the end of 2014 and found that their album “You’re Gonna Miss It All” was one of my most played of the year. It helped me move past that perception of Modern Baseball being a band I shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy, as I obviously enjoyed it to the point where I played it more than the majority of albums that made my top 10 that year.
This paved the way for me to feel genuine excitement for the next entry in the Modern Baseball discography, hungry for more hooks and humourous barbs pointed at themselves and others. However, there is no more watching Planet Earth and brainstorming tattoos on “Holy Ghost”. Just as I had grown up with my acceptance of the fun side of Modern Baseball, they’ve done a lot growing up themselves as they battle with adulthood. Jacob Ewald helps underline this fact when he sings “There will be no more fucking around today” on the third track “Note to Self”.
“Holy Ghost” is a very personal record for the 2 songwriters / vocalists, Jacob Ewald and Brendan Lukens, with them exploring themes of loss, loneliness and mental illness. It hits a lot harder too when you watch their documentary, “Tripping in the Dark”, which tells us how Ewald lost his Grandfather and how Lukens came close to ending his life as a result of his depression and social anxiety.
With all of the emotion running through “Holy Ghost”, “Just Another Face” makes for an incredibly powerful closing song. The self-deprecation is present in the verses as it was in Lukens’ songs on “You’re Gonna Miss It All”, but it holds a lot more weight here and cannot be taken lightly when Lukens sings “I’m a waste of time and space” with utter conviction and exhaustion. He sounds all but ready to throw in the towel until he signals the sudden need for change with a rallying cry that leads in to the spectacular chorus. The lyrics in the chorus are resoundingly supportive and provide not just a glimmer, but a beacon of light for Lukens and anyone else who suffers from mental illness.
Lyrics of the Month
After all that praise for the lyrical content of “Just Another Face”, it’d be odd for me not to champion those lyrics as the best of the month!
“If it’s all the same, it’s time to confront this face to face.
I’ll be with you the whole way. It’ll take time. That’s fact.
I’m not just another face. I’m not just another name.
Even if you can’t see it now, we’re proud of what’s to come, and you.”- “Just Another Face” by Modern Baseball
The Like List
Games: DOOM
I feel very fortunate to have been a kid during the advent of the DOOM franchise. DOOM was my first ever first-person shooter, and I don’t doubt that I would’ve been forced to take it back to the shops if it weren’t for the fact that my Dad loved it so much while assessing whether it was appropriate, that he decided that we had better hold on to it.
The last DOOM game I played was DOOM 3 back in 2004, which was a pretty forgettable experience for me as it leaned towards the slower survival horror genre and away from the berserk pace of the original DOOM games. This new DOOM release crept up on me, and it was only when the tube stations were littered with images of revenants and DOOM guys that the hype fully kicked in and it rendered me a gormless victim of advertising as I bought it outright on release day.
Was it worth it?
HELL YES.
I’m only a handful of levels in at the moment, but this is more than I ever could have expected from a franchise that has been dormant for 12 years. It is an absolute blast, and the environments and monsters are all utterly terrifying while equally beautiful to stare at. Just don’t stare too long at the monsters or you may end up being a victim of an encounter like my one with the revenant in the video below.
Hint: they’re not very nice as far as monsters go…