Circa Survive
Blue Sky Noise

Ok, imagine that right after death there is an elevator.

This elevator will take you upwards. To heaven.

The journey is somewhat long and thanks to a piped-in sound system, you, in this elevator, can listen to music. Just to 'kill' time.

Well, I'm convinced that this music would correspond to Circa Survive. Sure, maybe some of you would prefer to listen to Anaal Nathrakh or Cristina D'Avena in a moment like that, but it wouldn't be the same (at least for me). Because if angels sing, they surely sing like Anthony Green. And I challenge you not to be moved the first time you hear his voice.

I won't beat around the bush: "Blue Sky Noise", together with "Recitation" by Envy, is for me the album that most shook this 2010. It is certainly not an immediate album. To truly make it your own, you'll need to take it "in hand" numerous times. It will drive you mad as you assimilate it, but if you're patient, it will knock you out. Why? Because Circa Survive know how to create an atmosphere that is uniquely rare.

With them, I understand that the act of listening to music is something worth living, not as a simple pastime, but as a vital exercise. As essential as breathing. More specifically, these 12 songs give meaning to the wait for what comes "after". And by "after", I mean whatever you wish, at any moment of your life, whether it's beautiful or bleak. In short, it is not necessary that you are deceased, inside an elevator aiming straight at the celestial vault. It's as if this group is enveloped in a spiritual karma (if not all the members, then at least their singer Anthony Green) making every single song in their repertoire and beyond (like the cover of "Scentless Apprentice", the despair Green conveys in his voice is exactly that of the good Cobain) agonizing and solemn.

The sound proposal is made unique also by the visual imagery offered by the artworks of their works. All by the hand of that genius Esao Andrews, a visionary surrealist painter, who's been collaborating with Circa Survive since their first 'release'. If you've not yet admired his works, rectify that immediately here. "Blue Sky Noise" marks the transition to a major label for our guys and at the same time (according to the group itself) to "a new life". Also and especially, on a lyrical level. The dissonance created by the heaviness of certain lyrics with the sulpheric delicacy of the music is almost ridiculous.

All this makes this soundtrack of a hypothetical paradise more violent than certain music that would suit a hypothetical hell. Gradually "Imaginary Enemy" is becoming one of those few songs (alongside "Cornflake Girl", "Sober", "Ape Dos Mil", "San Diego Serenade" and "Teardrop" and a few others) that end the day and start a better one. Music that hits directly at our heart muscle. The first 3 seconds of "Get Out" are enough to take you to the empyrean, forget about an "elevator". Usually, in my sort of reviews, I include some links. But not this time. One clicks the link, perhaps even unwillingly, and casually listens to the suggested tune and off they go.

Circa Survive are not listened to in this way. You have to search for them and earn them.