Ari Picker felt exhausted and burned out by Lost In The Trees’ A Church That Fits Our Needs. The 2012 album memorialized Picker’s mother, who committed suicide in 2008. The project was deeply personal and deeply ambitious. It made many critics’ 2012 top-10 lists (including the top spot for the Wall Street Journal), and it led the North Carolina band to appear at New York’s Lincoln Center for the American Songbook Series. But the tour that preceded that show was fraught with challenges: Rock clubs weren’t the ideal venues for the band’s delicate dynamics and string arrangements for cellos and violins. After all that, Picker questioned his desire to make another album. But he has made another. Past Life (Anti-) jettisons many of Church’s identifying markers: It’s abstract and impressionistic rather than overtly personal, and it’s minimalist rather than maximalist. Picker will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Lost In The Trees feature.
Picker: I had been listening to a lot of Philip Glass, so when the minimalist/maximalist Yeezus came out I was primed. The record is brilliantly arranged, with no more than three or four elements in at a time. Silence is used as a motif and an instrument, and every time they drop silence in, it really hits. All the space really allows each element to take up a huge part of the musical picture. That one synth pad is not compromising or making any room for anything else, so you can feel and hear its whole sonic spectrum. It’s right up in your face yet also has a vastness to it at the same time. That being said, when I listen to Kanye I can never tell if I’m hearing him, or the people he’s surrounding himself with. He’s certainly good at curating some great art. His lyrics are hit or miss. The song “New Slaves” provides some powerful commentary on the trap of materialism, but the sexist lyrics on “I’m In It” kill the track for me. But I’m no music critic. I really love the album, and it has changed the way I’m listening and making music right now, which is exciting.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3dLvH9_EoU
