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The ever eloquent Tom Shear has mastered it yet again.
In Assemblage 23's newest release, Storm, he has
managed to make me feel. The lyrics flow from a place I'm not
sure I want to revisit.
Keeping its EBM/synthpop music background a stable and constant
link to reality, the lyrics just take on their own life form.
- such as, from "Let The Wind Erase Me": "I need
a respite from this noise/The distant roar of static oceans/Give
me a haven from this bedlam/And let my senses rust away".
Yeah, me too, buddy.
But wait, the fun doesn't end there… The entire CD is
chock full o' deeper meanings, enough to completely overpower
the music if you let it. I don't think I'd want to visit Shears'
head for these ideas, because I'm afraid I couldn't afford the
therapy when I returned. Not that they're so vile or vulgar
and unintelligible, but because they seem to touch on way too
many nerves, enough of them to make me ask him what he is thinking
when he writes them… Or… maybe not… Maybe someone
should just ask him if he's ok.
In the last track, "30kft," I found myself weeping
openly, not because it was the last song from this wonderful
piece, but because of the surprise it was. See, it's written
as a man calling his loved one from 30 thousand feet above,
in an airplane going down. I can't say too much else about it,
because I refuse to be a spoiler for those who haven't heard
it… however, it was too realistic for me to not be unfazed.
This whole work takes you from every possible emotional level
straight onto the inevitable end, (have I said too much?) But
it has, per Shear's norm, a way of making you think way too
much while listening to great music.
I always look forward to music that makes my mind travel, and
this is definitely something you need to sit down and absorb,
not to plug in and tune out.
-spyder
Track Listing
1. Human
2. Skin
3. Ground
4. Let the Wind Erase Me
5. Infinite
6. Complacent
7. You Haven't Earned It
8. Regret
9. Apart
10. 30kft
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