It is the last day of April and I see I’ve only reviewed six albums this month, which is my lowest output in some time. I work a lot of late hours these days, and it does eat into my review time, but I am determined to sail on to Ithaca, so keep checking back and I’ll ensure I’ve got something up at least once a week, if not more.
Disc 1555 is…. Forever Just Beyond
Artist: Clem Snide
Year of Release: 2020
What’s up with the Cover? Dear God, what is leaning into the right of the frame? All babies are ugly, but this ugly baby is particularly ugly. It is even wearing an ugly sweater.
Not only is this cover terrible, it is printed on a cardboard sleeve so flimsy it might as well be a folded over cereal box. It is also so narrow you can’t print the name of the record on the spine (making it impossible to find on a CD shelf). I give this cover zero stars.
How I Came To Know It: I discovered this album (and the band) after reading a review on Pitchfork. I checked it out and loved what I heard, and so here we are.
How It Stacks Up: I now have two Clem Snide albums and I’m on the lookout for four more. Of the two I have, competition is close, but “Forever Just Beyond” comes in at #2.
Ratings: 4 stars
Over twenty years separates my last Clem Snide album (1999’s “Your Favourite Music”) and “Forever Just Beyond.” There were times you could feel the distance, mostly in the latter’s smoother production, but the band has mostly preserved their sound: indie pop with a gentle flowing groove and thoughtful, often surprising lyrics.
Those lyrics on “Forever Just Beyond” do a fair of exploration of the nature of consciousness. You get the sense that these guys have a lot of late-night conversations about life, the universe, and everything. I found myself wishing I’d been invited over for some of those. I guess by listening to the record, I kind of was.
In true Clem Snide fashion, they start this conversation from the oddest of tangents on the opening track, “Roger Ebert”. The song opens with a light and lyric piano riff, before lead singer Eef Barzelay (yes, that’s his name) drops this odd gem on you:
“Did you know that these were Roger Ebert’s dying words?
‘It’s all an elaborate hoax. It’s all an elaborate hoax.’”
It seemed an unlikely thing to say, so I broke my common approach of considering a song without any biographical context and looked it up. Turns out, these were Roger Ebert’s dying words. Right at the end he was exploring some heady concepts of what it is to be. This appealed to my existential predilections and it was also a relief that it wasn’t some reference to any one of the many conspiracy theories polluting the Interwebs.
It's a lot to take in on a pop record, but you can expect that and more when you listen to “Forever Just Beyond”. The next track is “Don’t Bring No Ladder” expands on the exploration of consciousness, with the following provocative lyrics:
“We are a wave endlessly breaking
We are the ever-seeing eye
We've never left the place we're searching for
Don't bring no ladder when you die”
It is the kind of stuff that lets your mind wander into a challenging space, wrapped in a pleasant melody that reassures you that ‘hey, we’re just speculating – no need to be concerned.’ “Don’t Bring No Ladder” also features some lovely electric guitar, even with a bit of rock and roll reverb that fits in surprisingly well with the otherwise laid-back groove.
As the album progresses, you realize that all this philosophizing is also deeply personal for Barzelay. “Easy” explores concepts of how to maintain a personal sense of honour in contexts where your knowledge is inherently limited. Or as he puts it, “We only see through keyholes/But maybe that’s all that our eyes can take.”
And later on he shares thoughts of suicide on the bravely titled “The Ballad of Eef Barzelay.” His journey back from that darkness represents not a reaffirmation in anything specific, but rather a surrender to the uncertainty inherent in the universe. Or as he artfully puts it:
“I took that trust fall backwards
And just ignored those howling sounds
And as I kept on falling I came to realize
I finally realized there was no ground”
“Forever Just Beyond” features some beautiful musical compositions, and the arrangement and production decisions are exactly what is needed: sparse overall, with flourishes of instrumentation to give each song depth and nuance.
However, if you are coming to this record expecting something pleasant hum along to while you make your morning coffee, then be aware you’re going to get more than you bargained for. These guys are here to take you to the wild and seldom explored places in your mind, and make you think.
Best tracks: Roger Ebert, Don’t Bring No Ladder, The Stuff of Us, Easy, The Ballad of Eef Barzelay, Some Ghost
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