›

Review: Empty Skies, Dirty Snake Mouth (not just a charidee single, mate)

What's Hot
SnagsSnags Frets: 5694
in Music
Not as shit as it could have been ...

;)

(Sorry @poopot, couldn't resist)

Right, more seriously. I'm not really a reviewer of music. I tend to like what I like, which is a pretty broad church, and listen relatively uncritically and without too much analysis. So this is kind of hurting my head, but as it's their fundraiser single for Ukraine, and they have links to family there, I figured it deserved a bit more effort (details and link to purchase here if you're so minded).

So, the song. It's definitely in the same wheelhouse as the offerings on Catharsis, but it's also moved on, or maybe sideways, a little bit. Most of the tracks on Catharsis have a slightly dark musical edge to them - whether that's something I've imported from my own mental space when I was first listening to them, whether it's intentional, or whether it's objectively there, I'm not sure, but for me the Catharsis sound has a slightly dark, uneasy, ominous edge to it. By contrast "Empty Skies" kicks off with quite a light, uplifting, hopeful/triumphal guitar part, that drops back for the verse, and then kicks back in for a rousing, bombastic chorus. All supported by the usual multiple layers of parts, embellishments, strings, choirs etc. to create a light, airy, sunny kind of feel. Or maybe it's just the artwork suckering me with the yellow and blue.

Over the top of this musically positive foundation, the lyrics are pretty unremittingly nihilistic. Which you don't really notice until you properly listen (or read them on the bandcamp page). It works well, though, and whilst it's as much a lament on life in a spiritual vacuum devoid of the numinous or transcendent, rather than man's inhumanity to man, it also fits with how one might think one would feel (and hope never to know) in a situation such as Ukraine right now. It's certainly a shed load better than "Do they know it's Christmas?" or "We are the world" on pretty much every level, and stands in its own right as a piece of work, not just a "charity single".

On the "constructive criticism" front (or "things that fuck me off") I'm still not entirely sure I can forgive the crimes against grammar in the cause of finding a slant rhyme at the start of the chorus. And from the privilged position of having heard a couple of the demos, I tend to prefer the slightly less produced versions, particularly for the vocal. But those are minor quibbles, and if you like Catharsis, you'll like this, And if you didn't like Catharsis, you still might like this. Given the chaps are chucking all of their earnings from this at the Red Cross for Ukraine, it's worth a punt anyway, even if only to grab a bit of karma. Not that karma exists. It's all just empty skies.




0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.