Faultline
Your Love Means Everything

I believe all of you know what therapeutic shopping is. It's when you feel down, dissatisfied, and need to buy something to lift your spirits. As if material things could bring happiness. Undoubtedly a child of today's consumerism, many consider it a disease, but I personally believe it should be considered who it affects and how it affects them. In my case, it leads me to dive into the first record store I find and buy the first thing I find (that I don't have) that has a vaguely sad or gray mood. Far from doom metal, death, sludge, or dark (which I always listen to), therapeutic shopping sometimes takes me towards musical worlds very distant from me. And it was so that, in 2002, in the midst of a crisis, I stumbled upon this album, "Your Love Means Everything" by the Englishman Faultline (stage name for the musician, primarily devoted to electronic music, David Kosten).

I’ll say it right away: the album is not a masterpiece, but it contains those small sparks soaked in foggy sadness that drive me crazy. In this regard, consider "Where Is My Boy," sung by Chris Martin from Coldplay. I know many will wrinkle their nose and will be affected by the most varied diseases related to the digestive system and intestines, but wait and listen to the song. On Faultline's soft and graceful electronic carpet, Martin's voice moves gracefully, wobbles lightly and slowly, pregnant as it is with sad melancholy. It's undeniable that the singer has a beautiful voice, which fits well with this track, increasing in intensity as the rhythm of the song gradually becomes brisker until the final break. The idea is that of being lost on the streets of a chaotic city, walking its sidewalks with people passing by and moving jerkily, in a smoky sepia-colored atmosphere that’s very much like the Fifties. Certainly a good piece.

Quite convincing also are the third track, "Sweet Iris," this time entirely entrusted to the keyboards and atmospheres created by Kosten, and "Bitter Kiss," interpreted by Jacob Golden, intense and delicate especially at the end. At times, the electronics become darker, as in the case of "Missing" or "I Only Know Myself," and certain Massive Attack comes to mind, but in most cases, it's about black and white and gray territories, where the clouds in the sky seem eager to pour all their rain on you, and you seem almost to call this rain, hoping it can strip you of your sadness, which feels universal.

Very ethereal and dreamy is "The Colossal Gray Sunshine," with those delicate piano touches that seem to pluck directly the deepest strings of your sadness, undoubtedly a hypnotic and enchanting song. Also, there is space for another notable collaboration, that with Stipe from R.E.M., who lends his voice to "Greenfields." Along with "Where Is My Boy" this is surely the other peak of the album. Much credit goes certainly to Stipe, though it is true that Faultline gives a lot to make the song akin to a slow march of a man just left by his love, who slowly returns home wishing her all the happiness she needs. I also feel in the song a vague flavor of a psychedelic ballad, especially at the end where the pace of this march becomes more majestic and solemn.

The finale is entrusted again to Martin with the second part of "Your Love Means Everything" (also a track at the start of the album, albeit instrumental). Again, a good performance by the Coldplay frontman, far however from the emotional charge of the two excellent tracks already mentioned.

In summary, the twenty euros I spent that day were not thrown away. I repeat, we are not facing a masterpiece, but we have a good record in our hands suitable for those gloomy days when one doesn't want to have contact with anyone, and only seeks the soft embrace of a blanket or a warm tea. One does not live by metal alone, I almost think: it’s also right to occasionally step out of one’s usual musical paths, and if the discoveries made are ultimately this pleasant, then they are welcome.

Rating: 3.5 rounded to 3 because, not listening to electronic music, I might not have the right tools to fully judge it.