F# A# ∞

As a solemn man, with an old voice carved out from many years of living states, "Kiss me, you are beautiful, these are truly the last days", the mood is set for F#A# ∞. These truly are the sounds of the post apocalypse. Through the entire album, the listener is given a dark, bleak grey soundscape all to themself to be a witness to an eerie world that is empty, but bears a striking resemblance to the one we live in today.

Godspeed You Black Emperor! is a band with superb compositional abilities to bring out extreme emotions with slowly building tracks usually 15 minutes in length or more. On F#A# ∞, there is little joy to be found, only the most somber melancholy examples of music to be found. They achieve this through quiet, clean guitars, violin, cellos, paced percussion, glockenspiel, bass, and horns. This album is an excellent example of how well deep, dark moods can be buit up continuously to create a complete storm of emotions, and that's exactly what the band does on this album.

Although the compositions may tend to drift and lose the listeners interest because of their short length, most notably in "East Hastings", there are tons of flawless music sections to be found. From the inauspicious monologue found at the beginning of "Dead Flag Blues" to the 7/8 build in "Providence", filled with drifting glockenspiel and somber cellos building to a crashing climax. "Providence" contains several music sections separated by lengths of silences, ranging from a wavering voice desperately yearning to know "Where are you going?" to a heroic build found in one of the later sections.

All in all, this a completely wonderful album. Any prog fan should definetely listen to it. And for any post rock fan or music collector who enjoys some of the bleakest most melancholy music ever, this is a MUST HAVE!