Head
1. so, this thing just starts moving mid-jog with muted but persistent piano jabs and a steady cymbal rhythm, and I dig that
2. this is unmistakably a Necks album
3. I don’t know why, but tuplets always get me, especially when metered pulses repeatedly decrease and increase in tempo; I could dig this all day
4. normally, live drum beats distract me, but here I don’t mind that this sounds like rock music
5. as foreboding as these pointillistic piano rattles are, I think I could be attacked by a sidewinder halfway through this and I wouldn’t even mind
6. wait a minute, things are getting quieter… something is afoot
Neck
1. it’s astounding how evocative organ music can be
2. this Jaws-recalling glissando amidst all these arid timbres is seriously fucking with my inner visualization of this piece
3. this part where a skeletal band of guitar, hi-hat, and upright bass becomes clothed in drone sounds like if MMMD made an album about boxcars
4. my rattlesnake suspicion has been confirmed: egg shaker for like a bar and a half?
5. this organ fading in and out, weaving in between guitar and drum phrases, is tremendously effective at breaking up a plod that would otherwise risk stagnation
6. what I love about this band is that whatever they’re playing at any given moment is so interesting that you forget how tens….
Body
1. WHOAAAAAÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. ok, so I guess I probably expected that this was headed in this direction; nobody suspects Mogwai Young Team, but even on your first listen, you know that you’re waiting for something
3. this Swans-y post-rock groove sounds like 50 other specific things I’ve heard, but I can’t figure out exactly where I have heard these phrases before
4. night has fallen on either Amity Island or on Agrabah, and it is cold
5. this breezy, subdued postlude thing is my favorite part so far, and I think it’s because there are no more rock drums
6. this last movement would still sound victorious, even if it hadn’t been preceded by almost an hour of measured cacophony; that Body ends so softly is itself a brilliant resolution, even though its obvious contrast with its first notes is more clever than I care.
10 Final Words
1. enthralling
2. sinuous
3. golden
4. warm
5. seductive
6. familiar
7. cool
8. human
9. transcendent
10. terrestrial
More about: The Necks
