From: Mark P, youamwho@yahoo.com Subject: AENT- warning - LONG Date: 2/10/2002 10:47:04 PM To: seance@lists.no-fi.com Okay ... after living with AENT for the better part of a week and absorbing EVERYTHING EVERY ONE of y'all have so eloquently elucidated ... AND ... coming down from my surprised floating whilst listening for that first time ... yep, it knocked me for a loop spot on and I was as surprised at that as anybody ... here we go! The cover -- I love the starkness of it. Anything shot on a deserted beach in what looks like wintertime conditions is okay by me! Even the sign don't bother me, it's on a beach in winter, cool! Hell, most of my photographic output is STARKLY black and white and shot during winter's desolation, even in color, it's for the most part stark ... both mental and geographic. So this cover gets my two thumbs up. What an emotional roller coaster ride of an album!!! Total elation to downright despair in the span of 56:19! Nothing but sheer reflection for me, I don't think I've ever ... EVER related so personally to any one Church album in total as I've to this one! All right ... my elementary track for track babbling, if you will... Numbers -- Someone said "lurky and mischievous" ...yeah! The spritely wordplay is intoxicating, innit? The entendre is amazing in some of the verses. Hell, in ALL of the verses! I just couldn't relate to it as a single but as an opener it's tops. I personally think this song is up there along with any Churchy elpee opener ... top shelf opener material ... lures you right in. Sets the album's groove ... and I love that automotonic and OH SO female voice at it's end! After Everything -- My fave on the record ... so far! As with just about everything Steve writes ... -- but some tunes in particular-- ... every damned verse can be related to UNIVERSALLY in a personal sense. If you can't draw personally from each verse, well, yr either emotionally dead or you don't deserve to be listening in the first place! This is THE song I think that everyone has lived ... what a poignantly written for everyone ... yet ... personally written for the songwriter kind of song. It's got me tearing up when I listen to it now too ... boo hoo, yeah, so wot! It's about every relationship every damned one of us has been thru. It's a song of regret for what should have been but you blew for any number of reasons, a song of taking stock in what's in front of you, of what's been there all the while that you just took so for granted, a song of hope for what's to come, for that what's never really finalized, never truly over, never done ... a past life, a blown relationship, fill in your own blank ... --I think that's what Steve is more than not (usually) driving at ... it's that make it yours thing, see in it what you see, gleen what's to be gleened by you!-- ... hence that line about the train going around in circles and dropping you right back where you started. You can take that as a train ride to a new beginning and forgiveness, forgiveness for yrself as well as for another ... or a train ride to defeat ... I'll take the prior, thanks! -- too late in my game for anymore defeat!!!-- I'll take my ride back to where nothing is ever truly over and there's always that fresh start if you're willing to make it again. I love the mention of his (?) daughters and brothers though, that's nice! Nice personal touch there! I'm beginning to dig this phase Steve seems to be in ... I like this personal feel to his writing ... granted I miss all the mythology and historical and allegorical content but I like peering into the man's soul for as long as he let's me! He can go back to the land of the Pharoah and get all constant in opal later! I like him bearing his soul for us ... for a little bit! ;-) The Awful Ache -- Love the beginning ...whatta' brilliant bloody noise aye? The way the guitars bombard at certain key sectors later too, great production on this one. Like I said before though ... cemeteries, or is that symmetry, hmmmn ... I'm hooked, either way, I'm so hooked by this tune! I could do w/o the religious imagery though ... a bit too much of that w/Radiance and all on this album. Esmarelda is every girl that I've ever known! Broken or totally together. And I wouldn't have wanted any of em to be any different! What more could a broken dude ever ask for? Song For The Asking -- I don't care for this one all that much albeit for the lyrics ... too bouncy ... too many synthy things going on in the background ... but I like harmonies in the distance there. Does he say "I don't think you've ever been to the blues"? ... Man, if that's the correct interpretation ... wow! Whatta line. Chromium -- I LOVE anything Mart sings ... sorry, I just do! And the pissier the delivery the better! This song could have been written by MW-P! ;-) I love the imagery in this ...and the lyric checks! Colors bringing one down/around and such ... it's always a treat for me when they reflect back. I have a feeling this song is going to rock real hard in a live sitch! A nice tense Churchy rocker ... and I'd still love to shoot the video for this one ... this is a video director's dream methinks. Radiance -- Again ... too much religion for me. Too much prophecy ... nice ethereal feel too it though, love the bassline ... dreamy ... floaty. Reprieve -- Another poignant song ... for me .. for everybody ... you listened to it, you know. That "peaceful like a Buddha, yeah you're miles deep" is that endearingly meant or sarcastic? That's what I love about the guy and his interpretive way of writing! Ahhh ... then that time shift and the tempo change ... WHAT a middle eight in this one. And it's just a variation on a verse ... Jeez ... this one has two middle eights to it ... heh, kinda ... I love the shape shifting to this song! It makes you almost stop relating to it in your own pity laden self centered way and just lose yrself in that groove, baby ... yes, it's one fucking groovy little song! Oh yeah ... that solo!!! Do yourself a favor and listen to this one thru headphones, that solo in the left channel that fades this one out is as good as it gets! Although there seems to be a somewot severe edit in the middle of it that disturbs me for a nanosecond or so ... I always get over it though! ;-) Night Friends -- Love the build up to this! By the time the vocals slither in ... I'm agog and awaiting whatever Night Friends be arriving! I love this song! The scale like guitar phrasings are even cool with me, don't care for scale like guitar phrasings personally, but they fit this song. This is another one I'd like to do a video for ... and I like the piano too. Seen It Coming -- The third and final inclusion in the "Trilogy Of Poignancy" for yrs' truly. After Everything, Reprieve and this one. Steve's wearing his heart on his sleeve and I love it. "She said it's over, but it was over right from the start, you ain't gonna tell me that you were a saint everytime you took her apart, you blew your chance ..." ...whoa! I know I have ...soooo bloody many times! So so in the musical end of the pool ... again ... it's the lyrics ... although I would still love to hear this entire record sans the vocals ... I think I'd be as stirred. Okay, maybe not quite as stirred but there's so much interplay and layers and tension here, musically. Love the fade out to this one too! Invisible -- Could do w/o the synthy stuff again ... BUT that scratchy/ "cartoon character" (Snidely?) noise is it for me ... I love the way it never lets up ... okay, Sue ... who has the blisters on their fingers after that!?! ;-) Again ... the bloody train metaphors ... lotsa train metaphors on this record! Great imagery again! "Churches and Porsches," "headstones and milestones" ... that train speeding thru the darkness to the approaching day ... a new and fresh beginning(?) All we've ever wanted to see has just been invisible to all of us! At one time or another! I LOVE THIS ALBUM!!! Thanks for reading! Mark ===== Sleep Well ~ Don't Burst http://www.mitchworldusa.net __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com