LIVING AS GHOSTS WITH BUILDINGS AS TEETH

LAGWBAT is a freaking masterpiece and one of the best rock albums of all time for me. Each song continues to grow on me, having been listening to it on repeat since 2022. This album is more nuanced and richer in every aspect, while the three preceding records are all uniquely amazing creations in their own right, this one feels - for lack of a better word - fuller. More evolved. More definitively Rishloo.

The songs Dead Rope Machine and Landmines are absolute jewels not only in the overall composition and execution but lyrically, they are deep, hard-hitting and quotable-unforgettable masterpieces. The melodic and heavy parts merge beautifully, ebbing and flowing together, leading the listener into the heart of each song - which, for me, is the deep well of emotion at its core. And for me, that's what makes Rishloo so special and original. It's --- uncontrived and full of heart and yet refined and poignant at the same time. That's what this album nails for Rishloo. Drew's vocals get better than they've ever been, *and that's saying something.*

I love every song on this album. Dark Charade, The Great Rain Beatle and Winslow are pretty heavy and gutting; they seem to have become my go-to angst anthems over time. On the other hand, take the song Salutations, or Radio --- clean, soft singing, and the overall production is so light while packing the gut-wrench at the same time. Or the beautiful demented vocal part in Winslow that goes: "See it for the shadowbox cannibal dance distraction, see it for the tiered smoke-and-mirror display, see it for the crimson neon-stained glass refraction, see it for what it is.. not what you want it to be" (actually typed this from memory) that haunts you long after you've listened to it. They seem to achieve this balance of lyricism and profundity and poise and straightforward brutality in this album, not to mention the sheer skill that each of the four musicians bring. I have no technical insight or comparisons to other bands to offer, and I believe not everyone enjoys or processes music predominantly that way. Really immerse in the songs, the entire composition and lyrics and the energy of it all, and if you're like me, you could never have enough of this album; or any previous work of Rishloo's for that matter, as they all plot the points of their journey, leading into ever more exquisite mindstreams and inimitable experiences with each song and album... getting us thoroughly jaded and melancholy-holic with this one.

And perhaps that is why their art, underrated and unpromoted as it's been, stands out like a monolith in prog rock for me --- it gets very personal, the emotions are intact, the whole output has its cohesion and integrity... and all the while the musicianship continues to blow my mind. Thank you, Rishloo.