Big/Brave : "nature morte"

This trio is forward thinking and does try sonically interesting things on their almost sludge like albums. They have teetering on the edge of sound vs song in the past, but typically always fell on the side of song, The more emotive experimentation that opens this album tells me things might not fall that way this time. There is drone  and impassioned vocals but not much of a back bone to hold it together, until four minutes into the song. They do things not far removed from the sonic zip code of a band like Brutus, who proved more capable of writing compelling songs, where this bands is being successful at a heavier sound. Some might argue why compare music. There are only 24 hrs in a day I sleep for six of them so 18 hours to listen to music and take away the four hours I spend listening to new music that's fourteen, minus the trips in the car where my partner picks the music, so that is 13 hours. Not time to listen to everything I might want making new contributions compete vs tried and true.

What new are they bringing to the table ? Well the dynamic shift of "the one who bornes a weary load " that goes from frantic pounding to ambiance. This follows the album's formula and by the end almost predictably builds into a the pound of her anxiety attack. I was on the third song, then when I looked back at the computer screen it said I was on the fourth song, so their is a sonic uniformity to what they are doing that finds the songs all beginning to sound the same. When really the fact of the matter is they wasted four minutes and forty seven seconds of my life with a bunch of feed back. In so doing the very fact they plugged instruments in to do so it better than many artists who just looked over their producer's shoulder at the mouse being clicked. 'the fable of subjugation" lacks a backbone and finds her vocals wander aimlessly. Midway into the song the drums wake up and begin to pound things to life again. The punishment to your ears that ensures is not unlike what Sonic Youth used to do live. 

'a parable of trusting" is heavy and find the drums playing a little more of a role, to keep the song moving which as it is rumbles at the more doom-trodden side of sludge. There is an ebb and flow in terms of dynamics, but it largely does not move far and little to hook you in. I appreciate the sonic force, but that is all sound with little to do with songs. However, brace yourself for the flood of reviews that are going to claim this album is incredible. I can never imagine myself wanting to listen to this again. At three and a half minutes there is time for the last song to become an actual song, but instead, it lingers around bathing in its own ambiance. In terms of music as art this is a few strokes of loud colors on a canvas that hands in a rich person's living room to make them feel cultured because they own art. I will give this one a 5.