{"id":2398,"date":"2012-03-14T07:57:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T11:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2398"},"modified":"2012-07-15T19:58:40","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T23:58:40","slug":"remembrance-of-things-to-come-a-review-by-matt-conover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/remembrance-of-things-to-come-a-review-by-matt-conover\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembrance of Things to Come: A Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How does one begin a review about an album that is so decidedly against beginnings and ends? Rhetorical questions? In a tone built by words and phrases like \u201cin which\u201d and \u201cone\u201d?<\/p>\n

I like for the tone of reviews to match the tone of the album in question, but that\u2019s really a struggle with Princeton\u2019s Remembrance of Things To Come<\/em>. The L.A. group\u2019s second LP consists of bouncy, well-polished, almost dance-like tracks, but the album consistently opts for surrealism over clarity in its lyrics, sacrificing ready comprehension for subtly and gently obscured meaning. The songs have a general warmth to them and are pleasant to listen to multiple times, but they don\u2019t ever try to be particularly catchy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost made clear from the title alone that the value of this album lies in its complexity and comfort with paradox. I\u2019m not sure if I would enjoy the album if I didn\u2019t genuinely enjoy chasing meaning down a rabbit hole, and if you don\u2019t then this album may never be more than \u201cOK\u201d to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida\u201d is the second and standout track of the album. It is the only song that seems to have a clear narrative of events. Even here though, it doesn\u2019t really feel like anything specific is being described. The events are prototypical, and the song takes the listener through a surreal view of the typical day, propelled on by warm loops of piano and marimba with flourishes of cello and violin. Gliding along through his dour morning commute and disillusioning workspace, the narrator wonders how he \u201clost his faith this morning,\u201d and it becomes clear that he longs for escape from the everyday. \u201cGet me far away from everything that I\u2019ve known and all these places that I hate,\u201d he says with a Smiths-like resignation before strings cut through the looping monotony.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The next verse then gives way to motion, a state of transition \u201cback to Brooklyn,\u201d back to some sort of satisfaction. The song relocates to a place of transition\u2014a hotel. \u201cIt\u2019s a dump but I\u2019m tired of chasing down a broken dream this morning.\u201d He leaves the endless commute in Miami behind for the Keys, where he can appreciate \u201cthe sound of tanagers on the roof\u201d most fully.<\/p>\n

There are no guitars in any of the songs, and this seems to bolster the hypnosis brought on by the piano and marimba loops. It creates a dream-like atmosphere in which the speaker reflects on various existential dilemmas and general frustrations. These concerns plague the album, across songs written by the two front men and identical twins Jesse and Matt Kivel. Moments of escape from the neurosis brought on by such questions really only seem to subside in the moments of motion and general action, as on \u201cFlorida.\u201d Only in these places do they escape the \u201cknife slowly sinking up at you\u201d of \u201cAndre.\u201d They have to be in motion to avoid the creeping thoughts of dying, and lines of questioning which demand reckoning even when awash material comfort. \u201cBut did I love her at all?\u201d asks the chorus of \u201cRiches\u201d after describing scenes of golden afternoons.<\/p>\n

The album is at least kind enough to close on a moment of some triumph. The final song, \u201cLouise,\u201d asks you to give into passion, to \u201cCome sit by the fire,\u201d to engage in the contentment brought on by communal support and nourishment. \u201cI\u2019ll read all the books you write; I\u2019ll cook supper for you.\u201d This sort of selfless engagement in a mutual passion finally quiets the seemingly eternal angst of the nagging voice that appears in the choruses of the other songs. The album ends on, \u201cThen make the silence!\u201d The strings rise into crescendo for forty seconds before suddenly dropping off, leaving the last note hanging in air. After ten songs of worries and questioning, the album finds peace when it hands off the chase for meaning to the listener.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This review was first published at Pretty Much Amazing.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does one begin a review about an album that is so decidedly against beginnings and ends? Rhetorical questions? In a tone built by words and phrases like \u201cin which\u201d and \u201cone\u201d? I like for the tone of reviews to match the tone of the album in question, but that\u2019s really a struggle with Princeton\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,220],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2398"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3092,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}