I’ve only just regained control of my emotions after the stunning Sister John album, then Last Night From Glasgow only go and do it again…
I have to say, this is one of my most hotly anticipated releases of the year having been blown away by each one of the series of singles that preceded its release.
I’m There Right Now
To be honest, this album hasn’t lived up to its promise. It has smashed it. Exceeding my expectations in more ways than I could ever have hoped or imagined. I’m actually apprehensive about reviewing this as I’m not sure I can find the words to do it justice. This isn’t just an album, it’s a voyage of self discovery, a seeking of meaning in this journey we call life, our four score years and ten on this planet.
This is truly a labour of love from the three multi-instrumentalists who make up Deer Leader; Stuart McQuarrie, Ross Prentice and Robin Pringle. This exploration of the human condition is moving in every way possible, emotive music, considered and insightful lyrics and samples, the perfect sequencing of the songs and the inspirational and thoughtful exploration of the psyche from the start to the finish of the album. A journey which had me relating to, revisiting and reassessing my own experiences.
I’ve probably overused David Lynch references in reviews in the past, where maybe I can imagine a song fitting on a soundtrack or a band playing on the Roadhouse stage in Twin Peaks. Deer Leader give me a valid reason to reference my favourite surreal filmmaker, the title of the album having come from one of the most unsettling dialogues in his films with the Mystery Man in Lost Highway.
We’ve Met Before…
If you buy the album in the format it was intended, double vinyl, “Side A” is dedicated to the two songs that make up the album title… “We’ve Met Before” and “Haven’t We” and like the film scene they take their title’s from, there is a certain unsettling nature to these songs, don’t get me wrong, not in the creepy disturbing way that the scene in Lost Highway is unsettling, but in the manner of the performance of music and lyrics, they way they subtly creep into your subconscious and little messages or thoughts coming back to you long after you have finished listening. I even felt transported to, and visualised myself watching the glass box in the first episode of the return on Twin Peaks on listening to “We’ve Met Before…”
The many layered and textured soundscapes produced by this talented and visionary threesome are exceptionally emotive. The band started as an instrumental group, but the addition of the inspired lyrics and elegantly fragile vocals is like a gift.
“Are you awake now” announces the arrival of “…Haven’t We” the elegiac melodies increasing in their intensity as the song soars into the ether. The tempo comes right back down as the refrain of “no more self destruct switch” is repeatedly made, like a life affirming promise as the music layers and the emotional intensity rises once again, before revealing the words of the inspirational Kathleen MacDonald. Affirming my earlier thoughts that music is a gift.
Dissonant Noise
Two of the band’s singles follow, Crocodile and Four Deuces, both of which splice samples of the music of the aforementioned Kathleen MacDonald and her sixties folk pop band the MacDonald Sisters. Both songs ending up in a melee of unsettling dissonant noise. A nightmarish scenario builds as the emotive line “is it too late to rewind?” is repeated as Four Deuces reaches its climax in a blend of crashing symbols, disengaged voices, and layered noise.
In the wake of those two songs, The Loaning is almost like a calming mindful meditation encouraging you to “breathe in, breathe out” before its repeated mantra of “Be Brave”, the slow burn of the music adding strings as you lose yourself to a sense of calm and wellbeing, before raising its tempo and introducing a feeling of euphoria as the instruments blend to an epic crescendo.
Party Mellow feels like awaking from a deep sleep, the vocals low in the mix to be almost indecipherable, and the music creating a spacey dreamlike state as it sweeps and soars, rising and falling in intensity. The Great Northern arrives unassumingly, with minimal instrumentation and a reflective vocal, like its predecessor in The Loaning, the song then takes on an epic soaring euphoric feeling “tonight, if I’m lucky I burst”. I find the lyrics and uplifting nature of the melody in this song, and the one that follows, particularly inspiring. As someone who has more often than I’d care to remember considered and speculated about death as a way out, the line “Life feels no longer a disease” resonates.
Live in the Moment
As The Great Northern segues into album closer Infinite Jest, both lyrics and samples strike a chord, “we’re human after all” and the exploration of life with “what do you want?” and “notice I said it wouldn’t be easy”. The drums taking the song to its inspirational pinnacle, guitars singing and ascending to a gloriously cathartic life affirming climax. While I have no religion, I left that behind a long time ago as a toxic element of my life, I have an almost spiritual feeling having listened to this album end to end on several occasions, headphones on and deeply engrossed in the music
In the closing words of Kathleen MacDonald, “look for contentment and go for it, you’ve got to live in the moment”. I’m There Right Now.
The thought of hearing these songs played live in the Glad Cafe in a couple of weeks is giving me a feeling of excitement I’ve not felt in a long time. This is set to be a special night.