Review Summary: fragility at it's finest
Depression is something that can truly eat away at one's psyche so rapidly. It can be such a daunting task to truly go face to face with your own emotions and accept that you may need to break away from what's comfortable. Overtime, after letting this album sit for about 2-3 years now it has a much more profound impact on me now than it ever has. The dark empty tone, reminiscent of artists such as Giles Corey and The Caretaker is intimidating to casual listeners.
When first hearing Songs About Leaving, I was shook up. It was unlike anything i had ever heard before, something so much deeper and impactful than i could ever imagine. For the first year or so I listened to this on repeat through some of my darkest times, I felt so much empathy for Jenn Ghetto and Mat Brooke it was almost unbearable to me. Every drum hit, whispered lyric, and guitar slide had this deep profound effect on me that I couldn't pinpoint. Slowly but surely it began to have an almost unhealthy effect to the point where i had to block out songs about leaving for a few months to let sit.
Listening back on songs about leaving, Carissa’s Wierd’s intent seems so much clearer now. Immediately from the first track “you should be hated here” Jenn Ghetto and Mat Brooke are seemingly disgusted with the idea of empathy. Throughout the song their guitars slowly build, coming to the bridge with both singing “I'm only here to fall apart” making their entire intentions clear on songs about leaving.
No longer do Jenn Ghetto and co. want to linger and wallow in their own sadness, they seemingly want to face up to it. Almost in a therapeutic sense, each song truly breaks every member down, with songs such as “So you wanna be a superhero” and “Ignorant piece of ***” building to an antsy climax. Each song takes it’s time, despite being incredibly dreary it manages to give the listener this open space to interpret.
This is an album that truly grows with time, it’s left me with an impact that’s incredibly deep and personal, going beyond the sort of typical one dimensionality of a slowcore album. On the surface this album may seemingly say “look at me! Look at how sad and awful my life is! Sympathize for me!” but with time the emotional layers of this have truly come to light. In a time where the world can be so scary and human connection can be difficult to develop this album holds a relevance that is almost undeniable for any slowcore/emo fan.
