"Behold you now, older now, pushed and failed to bloom/Your brittle parts, false starts, just doomed"
Behold You Now from Thin Lear's upcoming debut album "Wooden Cave" dropping July 24 (2020) via Egghunt Records is, well, something to behold. It suggests late 70's blendo rock motifs, a fertile time when rock songs would pull from blues, soul, funk, folk, country all at once like 70's circa Elton John or Harry Nilsson.
Thin Lear, the musical project of NYC based singer-songwriter / producer Matt Longo pushes those same buttons. There is something else about that sound that Longo possesses and that is a sort of timeless quality and, dare I say, a MOTR sensibility but not in a way that is bereft of emotional complexities. There is nothing surfacy about Longo's pristine vox, keen prowess for melody and lyrics that swim in the deep end, quite the contrary. I also like how he doesn't adopt the indie tropes of the day which is never a good thing to do unless you created them in the first place.
Of Behold You Now, Longo offers:
"This song, which naturally emerged in three distinct parts, is a pretty condemning character study: clearly this person can't take responsibility for themselves, after many tries. Maybe they had potential to bloom once, but now they're going to remain suspended in adolescence for the long run. In the first section of the suite, we have our character waking up in a drive-thru, bleary eyed and still obliterated from the night before. That’s contrasted with the life of the character’s partner, who’s evolving and growing past him. By the time the middle section arrives ("Behold you now, older now, pushed and failed to bloom/Your brittle parts, false starts, just doomed), the character is damned. And they know it, and yet they’re incapable of correcting course. By the end, they’re escaping off into, likely, an even more drastic regression to aimless, re-heated youth. It’s a lifestyle that terrifies me, especially as I get older, because that pull to go back to the past, out of fear of the future or depression or whatever, can sometimes be quite strong. Nostalgia is only one form of that pull, but it’s only the beginning. If it gets a hold of you, you could end up trying to go all the way back: an impossible, and often pitiful, task. The more I worked on the song, the more the story line felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone. They’re in a loop."
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
From Thin Lear's Facebook
In just two weeks time, on Friday, July 24th, Thin Lear's debut album, Wooden Cave, will arrive into the world through Egghunt Records. In every conceivable way, I put my heart and soul into it, and I hope it resonates with folks in a way that makes them feel understood, the same way I feel when a record speaks to me. Just how drastically will modern music change as a result of this album? Well, it's hard to say, but I imagine the landscape will be unrecognizable.
This Friday, beloved indie stalwart Big Takeover Magazine will be doing an album stream preview, so you'll be able to get a first glimpse of this thing, and we can't wait for that. Be sure to follow Thin Lear on Spotify, so you can hear the record as soon as it drops later this month.
And for those of you who like vinyl, we've already sold out of the record through online stores like Tower Records, but there's hope (!), because you can still pre-order the album through the EggHunt Records website. Pre-order your copy now, or live with the regret of not being able to cradle this record in your arms.
If you missed it, check out last week's Tower Records' livestream, and marvel at how uncomfortably close I'm sitting to the camera:
https://towerrecords.com/blogs/news/a-journey-into-thin-lears-wooden-cave-including-live-performance
spotify
soundcloud
bandcamp
No comments:
Post a Comment