By James “Jaime the LaTn LuVr” Lopez
Critically Acclaimed Everything Absent or Distorted have finally released their second album, The Great Collapse, this week. High expectations were set in place for this bands sophomore release. Their first album, the Soft Civil War, debuted in the top 100 of CMJ (College Version of the Billboards) and has topped many Best OF lists including the Denver Post and Onion newspaper along with KCSU as top picks for local music of 2006. With so much love for the first album, the question arises; does the second album live up to the reputation of the first?
The answer, without a doubt, is yes, yes it does, and then some. The Great Collapse is a 45 minute long musical tour introducing the listener to a plethora of musical sounds and styles. Everything from horns, banjos, and choir like singing are played to create a canvas of emotion that makes a listener nostalgic for Broken Social Scene or the Polyphonic Spree. Everything Absent or Distorted (A Love Story) hail from the Boulder area with two of their members being professors at CU. The project consists of 8 members total, most with full time jobs or other music projects coming together to play music for the sake of music. The music flows with a sense of camaraderie and friendship.
The album starts out with a blast of horns that wakes you up in a warm comforting world. It is not abrasive but it invites you to listen more. The buildup of the songs are done perfectly to make you enjoy the song rather than like some other bands ala Death Cab For Cutie’s abysmal 4 minute intro into I Will Possess Your Heart, which went nowhere and actually made you skip the song. These songs are well developed and don’t feel like they are dragging or rushing. The track, Japanese War Tuba, is a perfect example of how orchestral, flowing music should be created. A nice build up into a gorgeous full sound including horns and a choir that singing from their hearts. Their slower songs also really perfect that idea of reflection on broken relationships of past making you want to cry but at the same time making you feel good. The song, Featherbeds in a Bomb Shelter, starts out with a Banjo very much in sway of Sufjan Stevens and brings forth a sense of loneliness that is somehow eerily comfortable.
Something that I truly love about Everything Absent or Distorted is that they are very scholarly and have fantastic titles for their songs. A few of my personal favorites are A Form to Accommodate the Masses, and Gospel of Slight Rust. When reading the back of the album, each track invites you to figure out their meanings, much like a book of poetry or something artsy fartsy. Everything from the music, the singing, the instruments, to even the cover art make you realize that this album is put together extremely well striving for perfection and getting very close to achieving it.
One of the few things that really can be held against the EAOD is that they take a lot of direct influence from bands like Broken Social Scene and the Polyphonic Spree. The song, Beehive, sounds exactly like something that you would hear on the Polyphonic Spree’s album Fragile Army. It can deter some people saying that they have “heard it all before.” This direct influence only happens on a few songs, overall, the album is starting to build a unique sound that makes Everything Absent or Distorted an amazing band. This album is going to be another critically amazing album. The songs are beautiful, are artful, and strive to make people think and love. Everything Absent or Distorted is a great example of the quality music that is coming out of the Colorado Music scene.
Related posts:
February 26th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
[...] Just another College Radio Blog … « Everything Absent or Distorted “the Great Collapse” Review [...]