We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. Tim Carroll spoke about how he became “quite obsessed” with an essay by author Arundhati Roy, “The Pandemic is a Portal”, which argued that: Accepting that things may never be the same again, but being aware of the fact that the only way forward is to leave the past behind us. Taylor Swift)Īn album of the pandemic, but just so… hopeful? Heading far further into electro-pop territory than I’ve yet heard from duo Holy Holy, this is an album of acceptance, but not resignation. The highlights come from Dessner himself, finally fronting songs like The Ghost of Cincinnati and Brycie (a very touching ode to his twin brother), and the copious crew of frequent collaborators that join the album, like Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes (featuring on certified bop, Phoenix), Anais Mitchell (who pens some of the best lyrics on the album) and, of course, Taylor Swift. With all that said, I just feel like this is a pretty, pretty album, and if you like what Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner “do”, you’ll like this. That’s if you don’t like Big Red Machine.įortunately for me, I do… so I could put up with that lull although even I catch myself skipping a fair bit there. You begin to miss ebbs and flows… there’s just no tension and release, and it starts to feel like there could have been some more ruthless editing on the album.
It’s not that the songs are indescernable, but - particularly in the second half of the album - the songs seem to meld into a mashed song somehow.
HLDYTIGL is a divisive album you either like Big Red Machine, or you don’t… and if you don’t, you really won’t like this album. Big Red Machine – How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?
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