Review Summary: A piano based post-rock orgasm.
Awake. Another sleepless night laying in my lonely queen size bed. The curtain is open. There are no stars in the sky. There is only darkness. I can sense my life and my life only. It feels as if I am the last person on earth. I ponder for a moment, the thought of having the whole world to myself. Where would I go? What would become of my miserable soul? The music starts.
A slow Cello line helps ease in a subtle, yet captivating piano melody. I open my window. I stand at the very edge. The bass thickens as I cross my arms and effortlessly glide through the boring Michigan sky. Nothing is left but the simple beauty of the Piano. I disappear. Suddenly, I find myself walking through a large city. Everything feels so alive now, yet everything is still. The piano of the second track, "Comme Suspendu A Regarder Passer, Sans Jamais Toucher", paints a mellow image of indigo sky scrapers filling a city of racing cars with headlights brighter than the sun itself. Somewhere amidst the tall buildings is a rundown cocktail lounge. I hear a voice managing to escape. A Sigur Ros-esque distorted vocal line pierces the midnight air. I feel compelled to enter the lounge. Upon entering, I am bombarded with 100 pairs of piercing eyes. No one says a word. Just blank stares. A soundscape of synth and vocal samples lead me out of the cocktail lounge.
There is a small rural town at the border of Texas and Mexico. The area is very green. A river flows gently towards unauthorized land. The piano is back. The sound of it is embedded into my mind. The town is very dimly lit. There are swampy looking trees all around. Out of nowhere, the piano becomes more and more tense. I begin to walk faster and faster, looking for a sign of life. More instruments come in. I walk even faster. A black horse waits patiently on a hill about 200 feet in front of me. A cacophonous electronic sample enters, accompanied by a slow, steady beat. A man mounts the horse and heads my way with haste. It seems he is going to collide head on with me. When all seems to be hopeless, he vanishes abruptly.
"Remuer Les Pieds Dans L'Eau, Les Yeux Clairs" finds me in a small Virginian town. It can't be present day. I notice a gathering of people towards the center of the town. They have rescued a young girl from the bottom of a well. Everything is going to be okay, right? But upon closer inspection, everyone realizes that she is badly injured. They cannot afford to save her. The tax collectors will be arriving tomorrow to take everything they have. The parents of the girl think long and hard about what to do for their beloved daughter. She is paralyzed and has a hard time talking now. Her parents get into a very heated argument. Tensions raise until finally, the father strikes the mother in the most violent fashion imaginable. A tear slides down the cheek of the daughter right before she falls asleep. She does not wake up. The sorrowful piano fades.
Similar things continue to happen throughout the entire surreal experience. It drags and drags and drags and I find myself longing to return to the simplicity of lying in my lonely bed. Moments of pure brilliance occur from time to time, but nothing ever compares to the first 25 minutes of my dreamlike experience. It's time to return to the real world. Time to return to the loving group of family and friends I have grown so fond of. The last piano line of the album brings back memories of being 8 years old and having not a single care in the world. But it also brings about traces of regret. So many things I could have done that I didn't. So many lives I could have touched. If I made different choices, where would I be? The piano fades.
