LIFT YOUR SKINNY FISTS LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN

This band gave me hope that there was still good new music out there to be discovered. One of the most popular 'post-rock' groups, they were still called Godspeed You Black Emperor! here, and not Godspeed YOUUU!!! Black Emperor. As much as I like this album, I think making it 2 CDs was sort of pointless; they could have put the best moments on one 80 minute CD. Man, I hate the concept of double albums. Anyway, the music here is really good for the most part.

There are two guitarists, two drummers and two bass players here. In addition, there are members who play violin, horns, and keyboards. No vocals. Only voiceovers from various sources, including actual interviews the band did with different people. There are added sound effects and everyday noises here throughout. The music has great buildups to amazing crescendos. "Storm" is a great track and the closest thing to symphonic prog here. Like most of GYBE's music it starts off mellow and quiet before the guitars and drums come in and everything gets louder and more bombastic. It settles back down again before the music erupts yet again. I always liked the part at the end where you hear an announcement(in English and Spanish) telling customers to avoid people trying to sell them stuff or wash their cars, etc. Then you get some piano and a guy in a bad mood talking loudly; his voice has been distorted to the point where you can't understand what he's saying. Great stuff

"Static" has the most sound effects and talking but the least interesting bits of music on the whole album. They should have cut this track in half to make the album fit on one CD. "Sleep" is the opposite of "Static": it has the least non-music and some of the best playing and crescendos on the album. It starts off with the best talking part on any GYBE album. An old man talks about being a child visiting Coney Island. He relates how people from all over the world would come to Coney Island and it was a beautiful place. He got lost one time and was found again. It was so safe in those days people would sleep overnight on the beach. "They don't do it anymore," he says, "Things changed, see....they don't sleep anymore on the beach".

I like how the guitar in "Sleep" sometimes sounds like a theremin. I think they use bows on their guitars sometimes, Jimmy Page-style. Beginning around 18-minutes you get some really great drumming and violin work; I wish these guys sounded like this more often. "Antennas To Heaven" starts with a field recording of some guy playing a folk song. Then you get some weird feedback noises before you hear glockenspiels. Some children are talking and singing in French before we get some more feedback and some violins. All of a sudden it goes into the most mainstream sounding moment on the whole album. It really sounds like some 90s 'alternative' music. The rest of the track is stereotypical post- rock and some dark ambient sounds.

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven is one of the best album titles I've ever heard. This is one of the better albums I've heard from the post-rock genre. These guys recently reformed to play live gigs; if they ever record again I doubt what they come up with will be as good as this. But who knows. Not the most consistent album ever but a really good one. 4 stars.