“Wow” is underappreciated. “Wow” is overused. And I know I’m
very late to this party, but wow.
Just wow.
Alt-J released their debut album seven months before I
started listening to it. I spent seven months hearing about how great An Awesome Wave is. And then I listened
to it.
An Awesome Wave is
an awesome wave.
Their music that isn’t the most “accessible” or “mainstream”
or whatever those words imply. But if you can get into it, you can get into it.
That’s what I’ve found.
There’s so much good stuff, so much good stuff. It grooves,
it’s percussive, it floats out these tidbits that make you stop, chew a little
bit and think.
They’re geniuses of some kind, right? Who else would craft a
song about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? That’s too fascinating for me. Everyone
on the planet should listen to “Interlude 1” if only to help to eradicate the
myth that having OCD means you keep your desk neat. The song itself sounds like
the product of an Obsessive-Compulsive mind. The stuttering repetitions create
an even meter. The words are clipped, the verses precise. The harmonies fade in
and out and give the song (and most of the album) an incredible surreal-ness.
I like to think that things don’t work out in “Interlude 1.”
That’s why the transition into “Tessellate” is so abrupt. The clanging chords
confirm our fears. The rituals failed. We failed the rituals and we are no
longer protected.
For a half breath we wait for some imagined horror to come
true. But all we get is groove. Those drums. That bass. Our new salvation.
It’s hard to pick out a song that’s just transcendently
great, but that’s because the album is so good at being an album. Everything
flows together thematically, lyrically and sonically, which in the days of
ITunes singles, seems to be becoming a rarer and rarer occurrence. There are
three separate interludes; there’s an introduction. Alt-J did something different
with this album and they fucking killed it.
It’s something good.
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