THE BOOKS: LOST AND SAFE (2005)
1) A Little Longing Goes Away;
2) Be Good To Them Always; 3) Vogt Dig For Kloppervok; 4) Smells Like
Content; 5) It Never Changes To Stop; 6) An Animated Description Of Mr. Maps;
7) Venice; 8) None But Shining Hours; 9) If Not Now, Whenever; 10) An Owl With
Knees; 11) Twelve Fold Chain.
You'd think that, with this clear propensity
for «pushing boundaries», The Books would eventually start advancing beyond
the format of their first album. For most of their predecessors this was, after
all, inevitable. From the nightmarish industrial clang of Einstürzende
Neubauten to the psychedelic kindergarten of The Animal Collective, they were
all moving somewhere. But apparently,
that is exactly what Zammuto and de Jong are the most afraid of — that trying
to expand their sound and vision will make their «art» more accessible and,
consequently, dilute the «importance» of their revolutionary contributions.
Which is certainly correct to an extent:
speaking of Animal Collective, now that the world has shed a tear over Merriweather Post Pavillion, how many
people are going to remember this band through their first batch of far less
accessible, «anti-musical» records? Even despite the fact that, in sheer
objective terms, they may have been
far more «innovative» per se. Thus, it seems that The Books are willing to lock
themselves in this curious state of «perpetual revolution» — not a progressive
series of revolutions replacing one another, more like the same group of Bolsheviks
running up the steps of the Winter Palace in constant replay mode.
The third album is a little bit longer, a tiny
bit more diverse in terms of selection of basic «melodies», and actually
features a large amount of vocal work by the band members themselves —
sometimes going as far as real singing, usually in a dreary lethargic mode.
That's about as far as they allow themselves to go. As for the samples, these
now include occasional poetry readings (e. g. from W. H. Auden and
«Jabberwocky»), along with the usual obscure movie quotations and bits of
street dialog, describing the details of which is excruciatingly boring, and
decoding the reasons of inclusion for which is impossible without performing
brain surgery on the creators.
You'd think that, perhaps, including a larger
proportion of vocals would push these tracks closer in the direction of real
songs, but it does not. The minimalistic instrumentation, the chop-and-paste computer
effects, the lulling or electronically treated original voices, and the
extraneous samples are still interwoven in «art-performance» fashion, so there
is no threat of losing the band's precious integrity. In fact, I didn't even notice the change upon first listen — so
seamlessly do Zammuto's and de Jong's voices flow into their sample database. I
suppose that might be checked as a positive accomplishment.
As a curious exception, I'd list ʽIt Never
Changes To Stopʼ, the best thing about which is not the "I don't want to hear any more talking, any more
moving about" sample part grumbled out by a seemingly insecure
disciplinarian, but rather an excellent overdubbed cello part that is as much
Wagner as it is ʽI Am The Walrusʼ. Its very presence makes the sound louder and
fatter than just about everything else on here, and teasingly proves that these
guys can make actual music when they
feel like it. They just don't, most of the time.
The bottomline turns out to be the same as
usual. If you are sleeping, Lost And
Safe may wake you up — slim chances, though, because it won't wake you up
by itself: you'll have to find it first, meaning that only authentic
somnambulists are eligible. If you consider yourself wide awake, I fail to see
any potential emotional or intellectual stimulation here that could be genuine.
Just one more hollow attempt at breeding a new cultural stimulus that is only
alive as long as there is a firm feeding hand to breed it. Sure ain't my hand, though — my hands go thumbs down!
Why are you reviewing these guys when you could be reviewing Altered States?
ReplyDeleteWell Altered Images. (I guess Altered States was a movie. Though maybe there's a band called that somewhere.)
ReplyDeleteWill this be the first band to get all thumbs down? The Way Out is a bit more musical and song oriented than their previous stuff (though not throughout the entire album unfortunately) so maybe not. We'll see I guess!
ReplyDeleteNo. Alcatrazz got all thumbs down...
ReplyDeleteBon Iver also got all thumbs down.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't counting Bon Iver since 2 albums isn't much of a discography. I could have sworn Alcatrazz had one neutral thumbs review. Guess I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteBeen reading your stuff for a while; big fan!
ReplyDeleteBit bummed The Books don't do too much for you, though. Be sure to give The Way Out and Zammuto's solo album a go, they both expand the musical palate quite a bit!