Let me start by saying this album should have been in my top 10 last year. It would have been — I just needed more time to digest this journey (or traverse the circle, depending on my interpretation on that particular listen) of a record that starts from rebellion and hits every stage between that. From fatigue, burnout, and anger, to disappointment, disillusionment, despair-leading ultimately to hope. All before closing on determination (to use another D word. I was really on a roll there before).
It tackles everything from religious hypocrisy to the shamelessness of elected leaders. This is a seething album about reflection while successfully maintaining a softness and compassion during a time where it feels impossible, and I simply wasn’t ready for it 365 days ago.
Part of the “problem,” if you could call it that, is that it’s so much denser lyrically than the ear candy melodies and choruses may lead you to believe on first, second, or 20th listen. I blame the two opening tracks, “Deliverance” and “Surrender to The Sound,” which are both addictive in a “should maybe be considered a schedule 1 drug” kind of way. Even “Funeral Pasta,” the third track, doesn’t completely escape this description.
“Heavy Conversations” is for those with a parent (or whoever/whomever?) that is apathetic at best to anything that’s going on beyond the threshold of their front door. Every stanza will have something you can identify with.
“The Things In Life You Can’t Leave Behind” feels like it’d be a Jimmy Eat World album closer in a way I can’t totally wrap my head around yet. I guess it’s in the way they seem to close things out on a longer, more epic finale with some kind of crescendo and softens up just before it shoves you off the cliff it’s been walking you to the edge of the whole time while you thought you were just enjoying a stroll (think “23” off Futures). The ups and downs of Seemoreglass’ title track does that. But the fall becomes all the more exciting once the opening notes to “Deliverance” kick back in, and you find yourself listening to the album for the third time in a row while your fries are burning in the oven.
All this is handed to the listener on a platter: a powerful vocal delivery paired with thoughtful lyrics and instrumentation that keeps it cemented in a beautiful, cohesive mosaic — a call to action both personal and collective.
I’ve got to give this one a 10/10.