Review Summary: Derided by many fans since its release, swansong 'Anahata' may very well be one June Of 44's best albums, and it certainly is their most genuinely captivating and focused.
Recorded January 1999
Jeff Mueller - guitar, vocals
Fred Erskine - bass, trumpet, keyboard, vocals
Sean Meadows - guitar, bass, vocals
Doug Scharin - drums, keyboards, samples, percussion, vibes
In the Hindu Yogic tradition, the 'anahata' chakra symbolizes the consciousness of empathy, love, devotion, and altruism. According to Hindu teachings, this force inspires human beings to love, be selfless, compassionate, and to accept greater meaning in events. Even as a strict materialist, to me the effects and feelings of love, devotion, selflessness, and spiritualism are some of the most self-evident and 'real' things to be observed in our world. As June Of 44 wax poetic in album closer "Peel Away Valleity",
"The feeling will manifest and it may arrest; you should not decline, though you may profess or attest; however, never define."
Derided by many fans since its release,
Anahata may very well be one June Of 44's best albums, and it certainly is their most genuinely captivating and focused. June Of 44 left the world two interesting swansongs, to say the least, with the pairing of
Anahata and their
In The Fishtank session at the end of the last century. One of the groups known for carrying the math-rock and post-rock flag towards the end of the 90s, June Of 44 were always fazing that sound, little by little, into something more funky, more jazzy, and more personable for those that were listening, and it is this sound that elevates the album into something nearly spiritual and heavenly yet still funky, earthly, and driving.
On
Anahata, JO44 embrace more traditional song structures, shaky punk/sing-song vocals (with Erskine on the mic along with Mueller and Meadows this time around), complex ethnic and jazz drumming, full-on funk bass lines, and keyboards - the quartet's goal and main sound is still here, though (look no further than the pulsing, organic "Escape Of The Levitational Trapeze Artist" to hear all those elements put to good June-Of-44 use in full force). The guitars are spacey and spiky, and compliment the funky bass expertly. The drums have all the force of the skins in "Sharks & Sailors" or "Anisette", but appear here with even more clarity and character. It seems that to achieve the optimistic mood in the sound and lyrics the band were going for on
Anahata (the Sanskrit word itself meaning 'unhurt, un-struck, and unbeaten'), their brands of flowing, noisy funk rock and Caribbean-style pop is simply better suited for the job than the post-Slint chugging and stop-start dynamics of previous albums.
"Recorded Syntax" and "Southeast Boston" are paranoid, lovely jazz-rock pieces, while "Five Bucks In My Pocket", "Equators To Bi-Polar", and "Cardiac Atlas" all feature wah-wah bass tones, utopian lyrics on love and society, and those familiar crunchy, spindly JO44 guitar lines that elevate the songs even further. And elevation is what it's all about - from out of the ocean depths of
Engine Takes To The Water, to the barren desert land of
Four Great Points, June Of 44 now focus on the skies and beyond, and the sounds on
Anahata capture this brilliantly. Concise, uplifting, boldly stepping forward from where they came from, June Of 44 found a voice that was truly their own here, and finally became greater than the sum of their parts; they could no longer remain
"swimming in poison."
"To lift! To rise! To sound!" Mueller and Erskine both sing-shout in "...Trapeze Artist", what could be considered the album's manifesto (oftentimes a gang shout is used, blurring who is singing, but also creating vocal unity). "Equators To Bi-Polar" and "Southeast Boston" are straight-up love songs (with a Ms. Chiyoko Yoshida singing a duet on the latter), and, though the band has taken on creepy, endearing love songs in the past, the honesty, focus, and musical quality of these songs really sets them apart yet still being unmistakably June Of 44. The aforementioned "Five Bucks In My Pocket" is a real gem, with whimsical lyrics dealing with the nature of time, money, and desire - the infectiously playful guitar beeps, the bass coming right out of a Graham Central Station song, and the stomping, fun snare rolls drive the rhythm straight into your being.
"Five Bucks..." could be considered the funk before the storm, as album closer "Peel Away Valleity" comes racing out of the gate; the piece is a funky, fast, noisy, psychadelic sendoff, replete with esoteric lyrics of soul-searching, dissonant sounds drawing from JO44's past, and a drawn-out ten-minute free-jazz guitar/horn/drums/droning keyboard jam, akin to Sonic Youth's "Diamond Sea" if it were a glass-half-full kind of song instead. As a palette cleanser after the whole album, the piece is truly something to marvel at.
They may not be as heavy here, or be shouting about ships, and the ideas and motifs and sound may be a tad indulgent, but June Of 44 had earned the right to wear their true musical passion on their sleeve in 1999. It seems the sky is truly where 'boat-rockers' June Of 44 wanted to end up, and it's beautiful.
"On my back, I wear two eyes - those that see a better life"
