Photo by Lizzy Davis Photography www.lizzydavisphotography.com
I haven’t done a music review in a while. That’s not to say there hasn’t been releases that have moved me of late. But over the last year, every release seems to pale in comparison to one particular album and band. That band is Nothing More. That album is their recent, self-titled, release. Through the decades of my life I’ve dredged the far corners of the ocean of music, searching for bands to serve as inspiration for my life, for my art, for my soul. Up until recently, only two bands have held that coveted spot: Rush and The Fixx.
But then I discovered Nothing More. It happened one summer day as I searched for something new on Spotify. The recommendation system offered up a single song — “This Is The Time (Ballast)”. In an adventurous mood, I clicked the play button …
… and everything turned upside down. That was it — the missing link, that thing I needed to connect my banging head to my thumping heart, to my artistic soul. I listened to the song again, and again, and again. Without hesitation, I hopped over to Amazon and purchased the full album. I thought, “If they can produce a song this incredible, surely there’ll be more gold to be found in the full release.”
How can I say this without seeming a bit melodramatic?
Fuck!
Yeah, that about does it. To say that, “if we were still listening to cassettes, I would have already worn this album out”, is an understatement.
Again, I say, Fuck!
Rarely has an entire album threaded itself so completely into my being. Nothing More did just that. The poetry, the pulsing beats, the melody, the passion … every element that makes music such an integral part of my life came together in a perfect storm of artistry to become, in my opinion, the most complete album to be produced in a very, very long time. I’ve already blogged about the effect that one song (Mr. MTV) had on me (see my post Empty V). That song immediately became my anthem to navigate me through the empty, soulless waters I so often find in society.
But what about the rest of the release? Could it stand up to what are probably my two favorite songs to be recorded in the last decade?
In a word, yet again, I say: FUCK!
This might sound a bit pollyannaish, but every single song on the album digs into the core of your existence and insists itself upon your hope, desire, love, and intellect. The songs challenge you to think and feel deeper, to question your take on life, to aspire to find a wider truth.
Yeah, it’s that good. Even the tracks most albums would use as filler — such as Gyre — offer profound words undercut by a melancholy (yet hopeful) soundtrack and become a siren song for your mind and heart.
This is music you cannot put away or forget about. You listen and it sticks with you throughout the day. It’s a poetry in perpetual motion that drives you through the good and bad of life. It’s music at its best. It’s nothing more (or less) than a perfection every band should strive for and every fan of passionate sound should have in their collection.
Buy it and help set your soul free from the shackles of mediocrity and two-dimensional life.
Purchase Nothing More on Amazon and visit their home on the web at NothingMore.net.
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