A friend of mine, Teddy Allred recently created an album! When he asked for my thoughts, I jumped on the opportunity to write about it, and because of his album's mysterious and highly experimental style, there was plenty for my imagination to explore. There are two parts to my review, one about the album musically and the second one concentrating on the lyrics. In this review, I tried not to criticize the music's quality, since I didn't (and still don't) know exactly what he intended for it to be like. Instead I described my own impressions of the album. Everything written here is based on my own experience, and my interpretations (of the lyrics especially) are merely my own and do not necessarily reflect his intentions. (Again, I still don't even know his intentions). Also if it's not clear, the review is addressed to the composer himself, so that's whom I'm addressing with the second person, and some of the people I mention are mutual friends of ours.
You can listen to the album here! Part 2 of this review examines the lyrics.
Left Behind by Theo Allred
Overall thoughts:
Soul of the album: This album seems to be inhabited by various characters and some kind of story lurking underneath it all. There’s the “you” who’s addressed, a “he” referenced in the last two tracks, and the vocal line, which I just think of as the Voice (your voice of course, but it takes on a very definite character the whole time). Many of the melodies that wander about the songs don’t seem to work together, giving the impression that this album is full of separate entities each intent on their own errand, but the Voice is very intent on all the personal and mental conflicts occuring within him and between the other characters.
The Voice speaks not with the music but through it (like through a cracked glass), distinct, formidable, sassy, obviously violent, overbearing and almost patronizing, thrusting aside any vulnerability with its very outspokenness. It is like the Wizard of Oz hidden behind the curtain, embodying himself to Dorothy and her comrades as a huge, disconnected head and a booming voice.
Musical things:
Many of the sounds you use are very sensory. I can almost feel them rubbing against my skin or inside my throat. I know you’re not looking for criticism, so you can ignore this, but as far as personal preference goes, I would initially have preferred less variety of instrumental sound within one album and actually more variety with the vocal tone (i.e. occasionally singing softly or gently). However my goal is not to make value statements, and as I thought about the overall impression of the album, those things I disliked may help to contribute to the feel of the conflicts + characters that I got from the album.
As far as favorites go, Psycho No Cool and Airbreathing aren’t doing much for me so far, but I enjoy all the other ones. Rip Me Out feels like the cleanest and also the most important. Everyday is a really good conclusion and Pathetic a really good opener. If one was to choose singles for the album I’d choose Excuse and Rip Me Out.
Track by track:
-Pathetic: I went on a walk on a dark spooky night (with some nice starlight, and also some aggressive ghostly fireflies), and a voice started yelling at me through a pipe deep in the ground.
-Excuse: Starts out refreshingly comprehensible after the last song. Has a lot of normal, pleasant elements: catchy piano riffs, drums (with a solo!!) and a normal melody with a fun-to-sing-to chorus and also a lyrical punchline. The weirdest part is of course the jarring noise on the chorus, which cloaks the singer’s voice in a haze.
-Rip Me Out: Feels sharp and intriguing from the very beginning. The lyrics overall are a bit hard to hear, but they’ve got me interested (who is this with a “fleshy spine”, and what is its significance??).
Now, as it happens, a while ago Chuck actually sent me a clip of an earlier version of this where Samuel sang the chorus. Comparing them now, I noticed that Samuel’s version was somehow easier for me to connect to - the voice was clearer and the lack of instruments made room for those high subtle notes in the background (which for me somehow cinch the poignancy, if that is the right word, of it - I like small touches like that). In the final version I can hear the scratchy quality of the notes and the unhinged vocal style and I can observe, objectively, that the character is undergoing ravaging despair and desperation, but it didn’t touch me as much subjectively like the first one did - it didn’t make empathy flutter in my stomach. At first I thought this was a case for the first version being “better” -
Then I realized that the more processed and obscured feel of the final version adheres with the technical theme of the chorus - a feeling of being trapped, wanting escape. So there’s straightforward emotional impact on one hand, and (possibly?) a more “correct” expression on the other. The latter also fits better with the character of the rest of the album.
The lyrics for this chorus are great, as well as the melody. “Spare me from what I once called mine…..” The general theme as far as I can tell from the chorus - being trapped in one’s head - reminds me of TØP’s Vessel, and that’s always a good thing for me…
-Low Key: I feel like I’m crouched in the savannah to observe wildlife. The song starts with a heartbeat - my own, or the heartbeat of some creature in the brush near me I don’t realize is there. One or two more sounds drop in and they are bugs whirring constantly in the grass around me. The melodies that appear each on a different instrument and then leave - that far-off warble, that husky percussive sound - are the souls of the wild animals that I see, viewed from a far distance.
-Psycho No Cool: Here the Voice has something to say but keeps getting crinkled away by static while precocious pianos keep repeating their dance. At the end an oddly comforting melody comes in out of nowhere.
-Airbreathing: A reasonably coherent, catchy song (though still as tired and tortured as the Voice usually is) tries to start, but is quickly overtaken and corrupted by a parasite, a flying, buzzing virus (which doesn’t make sense, but what does in the world of this album?), specifically the kind that latches onto the host and alters its DNA so the host starts producing baby viruses, except that with this one, all the baby viruses are so different in color and size from one another that by the end, (listening to this the first time) I can’t remember what the mother virus was like, much less the original song.
-Discovery: Sounds like video game music for soaring above green hills and silent purple cliffs. Probably not soaring for fun, but scouting for something… the drums and screechy synth give a connotation of war.
-Perfect World: Calming in the way Kid A is calming… “Watch the saliva move into place” is so absurd that I almost like it.
-Everyday: This is the final battle and conclusion of whatever crazy relationships (between the voice, “you”, and “he,” and also apparently “they”) have been going on throughout the album. The thick, hazy arrangement and mention of trees, clouds, rain, climbing(?)/sky and plains finalizes for me the landscapes I’ve been visualizing throughout: we’re in a dripping forest near the cliffs in “Discovery” and the plains of “Low Key.” At the end a helicopter flies away… so I suppose this is the part where someone gets “left behind?”