SLEEPING IN TRAFFIC - PART TWO

The hallmark of a top-level album is its tendency to age well, unfolding more and more with each listen. Best releases out there are evergrowing, and, accordingly, the positive experience grows as one increases the amount of attention given to the music. Alas, more often than not the trend is the opposite of that.

By the moment of the first attentive listen I had already listened to the eponymous epic 10 times on background, and that actually made for a good time. But that actual moment was when utter disappointment came. The macrostructure of the song is what I always hated as it's just a bunch of unconnected tracks the band doesn't seem to have even tried to glue together, but a closer look brings even more questions regarding the songwriting on the album. The formula the band sticks to is as stupid and regular as possible: 1. take (simple) melodic phrase 2. repeat it exactly 4 times 3. go back to point 1. Once noticed that, you can't escape from this pattern chasing you throughout Beardfish's music in general and especially here, especially on the main track of the release discussed. You can effectively predict 75% of the music on the first listen! Does this at least create some natural musical flow, sound well, organic? To each their own, but that's a big fat "NO" from me. The music feels rather like a rehearsal, and the more carefully I listen to this, the more awkward it feels. It's also unjustifiably minimalistic, creating an impression of a bunch of thin and discontinuous melodic lines thrown on a huge white canvas. While, on top of that, not being particularly catchy or fresh, lacking any tension and climaxes and meandering aimlessly, the music leaves pretty much nothing good to say about it.

This jeremiad was sponsored by the longest song, but my words in fact apply to the large part of the album. Shorter songs show less terrible approach but at the same time are harder to get into as the "epic" is at least (mildly) catchy. It's startling that this album might be the most high-rated among the ones of its scale and proportions.

2.5 stars. Try this if you want background music that's hard to listen to. Or better check out "Destined Solitaire" or "Friendship", the latest Rikard Sjöblom's release.