Godspeed You! Black Emperor
"No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead"

Premise: this is not a bad album. Had it been released by anyone else, it wouldn't be a problem, perhaps just ignored. The fact is that this record, however, bears the name of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

It's no secret that the phase following the 10-year hiatus (from 2002 to 2012) in the career of the Montreal ensemble has often shown a decline in intensity, innovation, and sometimes sincerity. It's undeniable that in the works post-'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, one can sense the absence of the apocalyptic energy that animates works like Yanqui U.X.O. and F♯A♯∞, and the compositional forms seem, at times, to cater more to fan expectations than to what the band genuinely has to say. Their previous album of 2021, G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!, is a clear, albeit valid in its own right, example of this trend.

"NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD" shows some timid, uncertain steps towards a different direction, and that's a great result for a band now so accustomed to its comfort zone. The last 10 years of activity have seen a gradual normalization of sounds and instrumentation towards a more traditionally alt-rock sound (gone are the days of the otherworldly and menacing sounds of Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven!), but in this album, for the first time, we witness the introduction of new elements in the arrangements: electronics, guitar and violin effects, double basses, bells, and other unusual sound sources. The sound of "NO TITLE" is undoubtedly a refreshing innovation, also aided by production that discards the anemic and compressed sounds of AT STATE'S END! in favor of more breathing room, depth, and variety in arrangements. At times, it doesn't even feel like listening to GY!BE, as in the midsection of Babys In A Thundercloud. And that's a good thing.

Even from the compositional standpoint, this record seems to diverge from the previous ones: the classic long suites with movements here give way to shorter and more contained tracks, with less (and sometimes more clumsy) evolution. The usual drone tracks and interludes here are more varied and interesting than in previous albums: Sun Is A Hole Sun Is Vapors is an interesting prelude for guitar and double bass, and the desolate landscapes of Broken Spires at Dead Kapital are a welcome nod to the days of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, a side project of Efrim Menuck and company. There are other interesting moments like the central and final sections of Babys in a Thundercloud or the intense melody of Grey Rubble - Green Shoots, which harks back to this group's compositional peaks. Overall, this record follows the vein of post-2012 albums which generally, compared to the first three masterpieces, showcase less threatening and almost lighter atmospheres. An example of this is the (almost blatantly pop) melody found at the end of Raindrops Cast in Lead.

All these are innovations that this band, as politically engaged as it is musically conservative, desperately needed. The English would say "too little, too late", but the truth is that these could be signs of a new course. The real problem with this record is a general lack of focus at the level of musical ideas. The various movements and passages seem to barely connect, based only on temporal proximity; this gives rise to a sort of collage of sound material that, if once it was the trademark of the Canadian ensemble, now seems more of a necessity than an intention. Even the classic crescendos, so loved by fans, in this album do not seem to find a satisfying resolution. The absence of strong compositional ideas, replaced by smaller fragments, condemns the album to an incoherence at times disarming. An entire section of Raindrops even seems copied and pasted from Cliff's Gaze in the previous album. If once Godspeed was a force of nature, today they seem like a twig in the midst of the waves.

For Godspeed fans, this is undoubtedly an album worth listening to, even though I cannot guarantee it will pass through your headphones more than once or twice. For those unfamiliar with the group, I do not think I can recommend this pale simulacrum of one of the most interesting and musically important bands of the 2000s.

Musically, I have nothing else to say, but there is an issue I have deliberately left aside until now. It concerns the title, or rather, the "non-title" (which is, however, a title! An interesting and novel authorial provocation).

What is happening today, in 2024, to the Palestinian population is an inhumane tragedy that deserves the full and relentless attention of our hypocritical Western world, and I'm sure it doesn't need to be pointed out by a fool on DeBaser.

The voices of those who write, play, create, and have the chance to be heard are very important, and the good intention and admirable commitment of Menuck's group in this area is clear. Godspeed has always been a highly politically engaged group, and the tragedies of our times have always been fiercely the subject of their work: in particular, Yanqui U.X.O. is a tragic, intense, and sorrowful portrayal of the horrors of war and the violence of the events of the Second Intifada. Yanqui is an instrumental album, like "NO TITLE", but unlike the latter, the message of denunciation is manifest in the music. Urgency, gravity, hope, drama are all genuinely in the music as well as in the titles and packaging.

What remains here of the tragedy, aside from the title? Beyond the written words, what is there in the music of this anger and gravity? The answer I found is, unfortunately, that there is very little of this. This title, which doesn't shine for subtlety, seems wasted given what is perhaps the most innocuous work ever released by Efrim and company. I certainly do not intend to endorse the shallow equation "tragic event=stereotypically tragic music" also because anyone who knows Godspeed knows how they are masters of painting joy and hope in total despair and destruction. Here the discourse concerns the intentions and the artistic proposal, which Godspeed themselves have wanted to make inseparable from their political message. This title, in its naivety, unfortunately fails to have enough weight to not seem out of phase with the reality of the group and, ultimately, the world.

For Godspeed You! Black Emperor, empty slogans are almost a mortal sin.