The Big Picture
Preface
The album’s architecture is clear: eight substantial songs, a short penultimate descent, and a 10.5-minute title-track finale. my favorite element is the order of the tracks in the album, which truly makes it a concept album. it has a curve, an arc that goes beyond “tracks”, they each have their own short stories included, but as a whole also, compose a larger narrative. it starts with alienation and self-disgust gradually turning into defiance, belonging, and finally romanticized memory. the range of emotions and stages that the album explores is truly phenomenal. while portraying a rather abstract flow where characters crawl, drown, fall to their knees and descend, it also portrays a very physical image by describing scenes that include skin, bruises, scars, graves and fading flowers. by reaching the end of the album, youth already feels ancient. with memories of events that never even happened. and the 11-minutes long back cover is over before you even know it.
Review
Starts with All Alone, laid-back, a bit generic and “genre” music. it is grand however, it sounds fat and heavy, however nothing specifically interesting yet. riff-based with a distorted guitar solo.
I got my feet into the grave, while you were dancing in the hall
Vocals are probably the most inspiring element. the lyrics reminds me of an idea I had for a song myself! good to see there’s already a song with the same theme.
This is the end of everything
A bunch of ashes into the wind
I hear you talk, why don’t you sing ? It’s all over
I drown myself into the booze
It does its job! introduce the tone and the theme of the album. “hard rock”, but it’s not scared to sound a bit annoying. Scars has a more mature form. I like that it’s word-y and I feel like they could make the orchestration more focused on that, since I found it hard at some points to distinguish what he’s singing. the riffs are relatively more classical, and glorious. For the same reason, the solo reminds me of Muse, which I liked very much. It leaves a few phrases for the calm outro that feel like final sighs in a 4-minute-long rant. I didn’t like the final 30 seconds, I’d have enjoyed it more if it ended after the guitar solo did. It has a “change of mood” almost in the middle, it’s where the “classical” and Muse-y sound starts, maybe not very unique but masterfully put together. then suddenly all the instruments put the guitar behind behind and leave, while the grungy guitar stands there, alone and moaning; but then they have an explosive comeback for one last section. A comment on Bandcamp had said that you’ll find elements of Radiohead in this album, and I believe the starting arpeggios are what they were talking about.
On Our Knees with 8 minutes is pretty long! it starts sounding lazy and neglected. but again I like the quiet middle section, it lets the song breathe, and the build-up after that also feels so majestic to listen to, a sense of resolution. I had to try harder than I thought to connect with the text but it all seems vague to me, and at some points I feel like the phrasing and the rhythms don’t quite fall in together. The soaring solo phrases blend in really well with the atmosphere.
I Only Bet On Myself is more upbeat, not many surprises.
I’d rather be alone than lonely with you
The Idea of Someone sounds a lot like Radiohead’s Reckoner. I like the rhythm, and I very much like the “hiccup” that transcends the mood after almost 2 minutes in. an element I don’t really enjoy here is the tone being too honest and personal. enough to make it seem even superficial, and nothing more than a friendly banter, a pub talk, a rant.
Disappointed is rather angry! unlike the inward corrosion of the previous track, it’s an incarnation of a physical confrontation. the sound is very thick, urgent but familiar as well. the lyrics are heavily more rant-y.
Did you believe I’d be disappointed?
it evolves nicely, the build-up in the middle has become a common pattern.
Tired Since 1994 is the outcast here. it’s (literally) tired. this is the centerpiece, the cherry on top, the climax, the point of convergence. the title transforms a birth year into a diagnosis. it has a minor subdominant that darkens the major environment; “Trouble, All around me”, right? my favorite track so far, it’s an intimate conversation, with strained vocal it elaborately yet symbolically pictures a private crisis.
Right Where We Belong is boringly linear. it’s serving as a resolution, so naturally it lacks the volatility and the reckless risk-taking of its predecessors. it has a strong position as a statement in the album’s grand narrative though. it settles things down, it matures, it arrives, resolves, and states that the decision not to disown the place, people or work that shaped you is the only thing that can remain.
It’s no one’s fault
A Step Further Down repeats an earlier cadence, but stripped-off of any drums or bass. it’s quite, maybe given up, contemplating, introspective. after eight songs of arguing, resisting, accusing and rebuilding, language temporarily disappears. this sets the listener up for the title track, the important piece.
I had heard The Big Picture before, it’s the reason I’m listening to the album. it starts off with memories, but memories that never happened, “memories I don’t even have”. it’s painful and relatable. a lament for what exists more vividly in imagination than in reality. narratively following the core of what we heard in The Idea of Someone, it grieves for an unlived life. the structure is well-thought and intentional. it continues to have multiple “sections”, each exploring relatively diverse atmospheres and environments. the guitar is more than ever present, and at almost 5 minutes into the song, it starts playing an even bolder role, the spotlight, the narrator when the words are embarrassed to shine. living up to its title, it’s a peek under the whole album, the big picture of all the tracks we heard so far. this one is all of them, and so much more. this track is long but time also plays a role, it gives a symbolic nod to how time doesn’t always heal, it sometimes accumulates and buries, and your idea of a “brave new world” is over before it even begins.
Sometimes, I wish I could be a decade older
And wave these years goodbye to be with her
So she could turn me into a better man
They laugh but no one dries the tears that are falling
There’s no dressing for my heart