•
Rating: 18 years have passed since 4 boys from the American Midwest entered the studio to record the emo gem "The Power Of Failing". Mineral, that was the name they chose for themselves.
16 years ago this masterpiece saw the light, 2 years after, too long after it had been recorded.
18 years have also passed since my birth.
2, only 2 years and a bit more have passed since I discovered the existence of Mineral and their "The Power Of Failing" and the subsequent "End Serenading", but also of the entire genre they were part of, from the discovery of Sunny Day Real Estate, Christie Front Drive, Penfold, Indian Summer. Yes, in short, a revelation if you're used to that heap of improbable haircuts, skulls, hearts and "I'm depressed because the world sucks even if I don't give a damn, I don't know what I'm talking about, I get depressed because it's cool but I have no reason because my life is perfect, but pretending to be depressed is cool" and all those things that annoy you tremendously even when you don't know the reality of things from 10-15 years ago (or even today to an even more limited extent). But these are not beautiful things.
But 15 years ago, the Mineral disbanded. The band members continued to play with other projects, nice, yes, but Mineral are Mineral.
And then came the group with the mile-long name. Not Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) who are quite something the same. Count Your Lucky Stars has nothing to do with it this time. This time it's Topshelf Records, (The Saddest Landscape, Suis La Lune, Prawn, Pianos Become The Teeth, We Were Skeletons, and others) making the big move. Yet again. Once more, the ghost of Mineral manifests itself once again. I mean, good emo records haven't been lacking in recent years, the revival of this genre certainly has its followers, but not many have something special that allows them to create something more than an imitation of their idols.
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die have that something extra. Something not easily identifiable, at least for the writer. It's not the voice, it's not the technique, there are no virtuosos, the genre doesn't require such things, the recipe remains the same. Yes, we have Post Rock influences in some parts, crescendo melodies that aren't heard so often, rendered to the brink of perfection.
It's been 12 days since I listened to this record for the first time.
And finally, it's been about a quarter of an hour since I started writing, even though I had decided long before that this record would be one of the best releases of its genre this year, or perhaps of the decade just begun. An easy decision, anyway.
Loading comments slowly
