{"id":2452,"date":"2012-04-09T08:20:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:07:16","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:07:16","slug":"mixed-emotions-a-review-by-matt-conover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/mixed-emotions-a-review-by-matt-conover\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Emotions: A Review by Matt Conover"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Mixed Emotions<\/em>\u00a0is one of the most vivid break-up albums in recent memory. It actually feels like going through a breakup; it feels, at times, gleefully absurd, but at others, irritating, moody and incomprehensible. Is that a good thing? Depends on how sadistic\/masochistic you\u2019re feeling when you put the record on.<\/p>\n

It really doesn\u2019t feel like it is going to be such an album at first, either. The album opener and single, \u201cBrothers\u201d begins with gentle, airy synths and something that sounds like waves lapping on a pebble beach. A constant, very low throb settles in just before some bongos fill out the sound, and the whole thing takes on a rhythm as tight and unrelenting as a street drummer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Eric Emm\u2019s strong but dexterous baritone vocals hold a distinct place within this rhythm, but he never really goes for lyrical clarity\u2013\u2013taking on a lovely sort of distinctive mumble. He rises out of the murkiness for the chorus, which sarcastically dolls out a couple\u2019s problems. They\u2019re simple, but real and insurmountable. \u201cYou\u2019re just the same you ever were,\u201d he sings three times in succession to close the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrothers,\u201d like a microcosm of\u00a0Mixed Emotions<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>as a whole, starts in this near comic celebration of the absurdly simple problems that are undermining his relationship, as if by laughing them down he could still fix them. The first three songs all have a bit of catchiness to their danceable tempos. This is especially true for \u201cGreen Grass,\u201d which contains in it an utterly satisfying acoustic guitar solo that comes seemingly out of nowhere. The guitar remains largely subdued until the 2:20 mark, and then suddenly the percussion and bouncy synth give way after building to crescendo, clearing some sonic space for Jesse Cohen to strum. It\u2019s an odd moment\u2014just listening Emm to just wail alongside an acoustic guitar, but it\u2019s one of the few truly uplifting moments on the album. But even at the end of that song, hope for improvement seems lost. \u201cI don\u2019t know why,\u201d he sings repeatedly as it winds down.<\/p>\n

From \u201cYes Way\u201d on though, the album really takes on the feel of a relationship unwinding or coming undone. Strangely, the results are sometimes annoying but also insightful. \u201cLost Somewhere\u201d sounds something like Paul Simon on\u00a0Graceland<\/em>, and that gives the song a real resolve to change and improve that doesn\u2019t exist on the other songs: \u201cYou know there\u2019s an answer, I\u2019m not leaving without a fight.\u201d Elsewhere on the second half of the album, a sense of helpless melancholy takes over the songs, most clearly expressed by Emm\u2019s seemingly endless crying of the phrase \u201cwe\u2019re not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some places, like the one just mentioned from \u201cNot The Same,\u201d the moments of aural pleasure of the first half are sacrificed to express some more visceral, sharp pain. \u201cNot The Same\u201d actually becomes difficult to listen to multiple times, especially if you\u2019ve recently experienced such pain. That could just be because it\u2019s a bit whiny though.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonesuch\u201d theatrically closes the album with a big, echoing sound that is surely the love child of Yeasayer and Phil Collins. It\u2019s a very enjoyable, smooth and open song, though undeniably sad. Emm seems to give in to resignation and bitterness. \u201cWhen you get what you want, it will all be better, no doubt.\u201d It\u2019s a devastating close to the album, though perhaps especially to me and everyone else who has ended a relationship with the justification, \u201cI want to be on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using my own personal life in a music review is not something I do lightly, but\u00a0Mixed Emotions<\/em>\u00a0presses on some raw wounds which I felt compelled to acknowledge for honesty\u2019s sake. The songs meditate on the different and sometimes contradictory emotions of the breakup mindset, critically leaving room for the listener to color the album with his or her own experiences\u2013\u2013as I did. Tanlines\u2019 album dwells in the same emotional territory that I have been recently lost in, but navigates it with the subtlety and empathy of a compassionate person who has the benefit of hindsight. It goes past merely evoking painful memories to actually helping one to understand and reconcile such emotions. It has helped me, for one, to look honestly at what I have been through, and to move on.<\/p>\n

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

Mixed Emotions\u00a0is one of the most vivid break-up albums in recent memory. It actually feels like going through a breakup; it feels, at times, gleefully absurd, but at others, irritating, moody and incomprehensible. Is that a good thing? Depends on how sadistic\/masochistic you\u2019re feeling when you put the record on. It really doesn\u2019t feel like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,4,220],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452"}],"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=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3153,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions\/3153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}