Aereogramme
– My Heart Has A Wish That
You Would Not Go
Sentimentality
shouldn't play a big part in my choices for this list, but it will.
Aereogramme's final album might be the most sentimental choice I make
though. A Glasgow band on a legendary Glasgow label that I was
introduced to while living in Glasgow, whose final Glasgow gig I was
lucky to attend at my university's union just round the corner from
my flat... in Glasgow. At a time in my life when I was learning to
embrace non heavy music again, Aereogramme were a huge influence on
my expanding tastes, and an inspiration to look beyond perceived
truths about my own identity. This album in particular captures
Aereogramme's beautiful sound and steers away from the often
cathartic moments of rage on previous releases – basically all the
bits I had found really cool before. The absence of screaming vocals
may have been an enforced change after singer Craig B had lost his
voice for six months in between records, but it's a shift
that suits the band, allowing the listener to notice and retain the
subtler moments, and may have led some of the band members to their
ongoing artistic success with other groups.
The
track titles might give away that Aereogramme's work is fairly
sombre, but it is certainly not without energy. Longing, desire,
ambition, heartbreak, depression, love, and identity intertwine in
the lyrics while post rock guitar work, dramatic piano, and even epic
strings work in unison with the powerful rhythm section to build us
towards soaring crescendoes again and again. My
Heart Has A Wish That You Would Not Go is also
comfortable letting a song gently drift off in to your mind, quietly
easing you in to the next paean to love and belonging. Aereogramme
want you to process the emotions of each song, incorporating them in
to who you are as you listen, before the next comes to dominate your
ears, mind, and heart.
With
the character of Coma Boy established in the first song with
heartfelt pleas to bury your soul with him, “Barriers” comes in
with huge percussion sounds and leading strings building booming and
invigorating bridges to the listener, but ultimately leaving its
protagonist caught behind emotional barriers. The floating space of
“Exits” suggests that this album is not about hope of overcoming
those barriers, but about contemplation, acceptance, and finding
something to cling to in hopelessness: a feeling brilliantly
encapsulated in the mantra and its capitulation in the next song, “A
Life Worth Living”:
A
life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth
A life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth
This can't be found in all of me
A life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth
A life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth living
A life worth
This can't be found in all of me
The
second half of the record finds a more conciliatory tone, looking for
a way to bridge gaps and find love as the only saving force in life.
Album closer “You're Always Welcome” is the most outwardly
positive moment, where a gentler folk opening leads Craig B to
proclaim that “you have a home here,” and “you're always
welcome''. The slow, heavy percussion and the gentle orchestral
strings supply the melancholic feeling recognised from earlier songs,
but these are offset by the underlying acoustic guitar plucking and
lyrics “May your days be golden / May it always surround you,”
that give the ending the warmth it deserves.
But
perhaps the greatest moment on the album for me is “Living
Backwards”. With its poetic questioning, bass-driven intro, and
insistent acoustic guitar foundation, it forms the heart of the
protagonist's desire not to be left alone. The bluesy moment that
one of the album's few identifiable guitar riffs kicks in causes my skin
to tingle, and from here I'm taken through an increasingly intense
repetition of the idea of life lived backwards. It's a song that encapsulates the burning energy that exists at the core of
“depressing” music, and the sparks of creativity that offer an
outlet for so many people facing loneliness, separation, and
depression. A beautiful record from a beautiful band that left me
feeling about Aereogramme exactly as the title suggests.
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