Trollheart

But if you'll indulge me, here is where the cracks begin to appear. Up to now the guys have been very careful to keep the setting of this story ambiguous: there has been no mention of city, country or region. It could be anywhere; it might not even be on our planet. Some of the very best dystopian stories have used this device: Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", despite the title, markedly fails to confirm where it's set, whereas Orwell's classic, while claiming the action takes place on "Airstrip One", is clearly Britain, as is Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta". I don't think there's a location mentioned in Bradbury's story, though it's a long time since I last read it. Keeping things vague in terms of location, or even year, can be helpful in some ways, as often we don't want to face the idea that it's our own country that's being painted so darkly, face the possibility that "this could happen here". So that's fine. "Frownland" could be anywhere, really. Any time. But now all of a sudden as "We are the dead" opens, Schuyler begins singing about New York, and referencing 9/11. I understand they wanted to incorporate their feelings about the Twin Towers attacks into the music, but I feel it's blurring the message. Badly.

The thing is, now we've suddenly and without warning stuck a pin in a map and said "Yeah, it's America." It may not be New York (or it may) but the Big Apple has definitely been mentioned. The news story about the attacks has been mentioned too, so now as Schuyler sings that he's hearing the reports, you start to think this can't be any more than twenty years or so in the future. Suddenly, everything is fixed in place, located, and I really don't get it. Is this just allegorical, or is Frownland in America? I just think it waters down the storyline and weakens it badly. I'll be returning to this possibly uncomfortable topic shortly, but for now, what about the music?

Well, "We are the dead" (title of course taken from "Nineteen Eighty-Four") is a slow, sad dirge, as you might expect, with only acoustic guitar, drums and some beautiful haunting violin from a lady I believe called Emily Lisanti carrying it, an almost quiet Waterboys celtic feeling about it as Schuyler talks about 9/11 and the aftermath. The lyric is inspired --- "Did you hear the twins have died?/ Our hearts are all split open wide" --- but I sort of fail to see the message here. The overriding concept seems to be that those living today are as good as dead and must build the world for those who come after us. I confess I'm confused. It doesn't help that Schuyler then talks about being dead the moment he met his lover, which would kind of make more sense: I'll never be this happy again so I may as well be dead now. But that doesn't seem to be what he's saying... But hold on. Rereading the journal I see now what he's getting at. It's the concept from "Nineteen Eighty-Four", that death occurred with the first seditious thought. Your mind betrayed you, the Party machinery tried and convicted you and in your heart and soul, the inbred sense of unquestioning loyalty to the Party executed you. You are now dead. So what the Hero is saying is that he died when he met the girl and they began to rebel. Got it now. Sort of.

Back to the music. It's actually almost three minutes into the song before the percussion hits, and it's that much more effective when it does. There's also a nice stark choir that comes in near the end. The vocal gets much stronger and more passionate as it comes towards the conclusion, but to be honest I would have preferred it just faded on "We are the dead", and they throw in a last line which I think personally does not work. Speaking of not working, "Modern everything" is played on an, as already admitted, out of tune acoustic piano, and I just don't get it. I know Waits used one, I know others have, but it takes special skill, as it were, to play badly well, and I just don't feel this gives the same sort of effect. It's also annoying that now we have a song about a hurricane, which when I heard this the first time I naturally assumed, given the 9/11 connection in the previous song, they were now singing about Katrina. Perhaps they are, in a sort of oblique way, but according to the plot this is meant to be a hurricane --- or a metaphor for one --- that hits and kind of knocks the whole story off kilter. If this were a novel I'd say it was a clumsy plot device, and I'm forced to agree that it seems a weird kind of way of throwing the story out of whack. Great vocal harmonies again and some fine soft percussion. I also like the way Schuyler and Bryan don't feel they have to make each line rhyme, so that when you think maybe a certain word is going to come up it doesn't, and it's refreshing.

"Don't vanish" then is a short little piano-led song with a low-key vocal with the line "Sometimes I'm a visionary" repeated from the previous song, and a direct lead into the next, and longest song, "We will rebuild this city", which you would imagine harks back to the hurricane spoken of in "Modern everything", but could refer to rebuiliding society after the fall of the Party and The Man. It's a very optimistic song, as you would expect from the title, with the title of the opener repeated in it and a vein of cheerfulness and looking forward in it as the guys sing "After all this time/ I'm still keeping my head up." I also like the switching around of the lines "It's been a few years but it seems like a day" later rearranged to say "It's been a few days but it seems like years." Again this song showcases the excellent vocal harmonies in cloudcover, and it's interesting to note they throw in a reference to one of their previous albums when they sing "Enter humanity".

The song itself seems to be broken into two distinctive parts, so much so that were it not that you know it not to be the case you would think this was two separate songs. Slighlty into the third minute of the seven it runs for, the synth builds up and then breaks down as the second part comes in, a slower, more ballad-centric song, but again I'm confused. He's talking about someone saying "We'll carry you if you can point the way" and "We'll guard your life/ We won't lose you again". Who's he talking about? Freedom? Human dignity? An actual person? Again, I'm at a loss. There are some lovely ELO-type touches in the guitar and then it powers back into the riff that opened the album. Whether that's a warning that The Party is on the rise again or just advice not to let your guard down I don't know but it's very clever. They also reference "Independence Day" in New York, so again we're unavoidably located. Perhaps "she" is New York? Again it's a little ambiguous, maybe it's meant to be that way.

A very optimistic end, but then it's not, because the closing track (after some audio of people cheering and chanting) is "Give her my best", which seems to refer to the death of the Hero in a car accident. He knows he's dying, or dead, and hopes his lover will find happiness with someone else. It's touching, but a little, again, confusing. When it starts I think for a moment I'm hearing "Stairway to Heaven" --- surely that was planned? --- and the song mostly proceeds on soft strummed acoustic guitar, and works along the same lines as the very last Roger Waters song with Pink Floyd, the closing track to "The final cut", "Two suns in the sunset", leaving really a rather bleak and rather unsatisfactory ending. The song gets harder in the last few moments as Schuyler sings "I'm not coming home anytime soon/ Trapped behind a tombstone/ Trying to get a message through." Sobering, but leaves me feeling a little empty. I know in general dystopian stories, from "Brazil" to "Soylent Green" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" to "V for Vendetta" rarely if ever have a happy ending, but I would just prefer to have taken a better message away from the album than that, after all his struggles to make the world a better place --- and possibly succeeding --- the Hero dies in a senseless accident. Just seems a little unfair to him, after all he's been through, and having shared those experiences with him throughout the album and come to know, and care for him, I feel it's a bad payoff in the end, realistic and pragmatic though it may be.

TRACKLISTING

1. The fire this time
2. One private moment
3. Welcome to the Party
4. Independence Day
5. Diluted
6. Your existence is in bad taste
7. Keep up the pace
8. Small stones
9. We are the dead
10. Modern everything
11. Don't vanish
12. We will rebuild this city
13. Take it to the streets
14. Give her my best

I certainly don't want to come across as overcritical and I think I have already pointed out that I love this album and think it could do extremely well if it gets the right attention, but the above niggles, well, niggle at me. The story is progressing fine until "We are the dead" and then it just seems to veer off in a sharp turn, kind of coming back by a circuitous route right at the end, but it's too roundabout a journey for me to stay focussed on the plot. Had the story ended with "Small stones", that might have been preferable, but then of course "We are the dead", "Modern everything" etc are all superb songs and I wouldn't want to have missed them. But someone listening to this for the first time would be excused for thinking these were bonus tracks, and had nothing to do with the concept running through the album.

No doubt the guys will tell me I got it totally wrong, and I probably did. But I'm trying to understand this and I really can't. The change in direction, focus and story from that track on is just bizarre to me, and while it most definitely does not come close to ruining the album, it does taint it a little, making it that much harder to follow a pretty great storyline, something not always the case with concept albums ---"Lamb lies down on Broadway" I'm looking at YOU! I think the guys have done a fantastic job here, and I'm amazed by the talent, the cohesiveness of the vision they have, the dedication to and execution of the album, and the deep understanding between Bryan and Schuyler. I just wish I hadn't had to have these little criticisms, some of which are not so little.

But notwithstanding all of that, you need to hear this album. I mean, physically need to. It's tremendous, and should go down as a future classic. I hope they get a recording deal, or at least interest from someone who can promote and distribute this music as it should be. This is an album that needs to be heard, and by as many people as possible. It does not deserve to languish on bandcamp, soundcloud or anywhere else, forgotten and ignored. The work the lads have put into this album needs to be recognised, celebrated and shared with the world. When you consider they wrote, played, recorded, engineered, arranged, produced and released this themselves, with no help from even a minor label or any professional entity or person, well it just beggars belief and reaffirms my contention that with passion and talent and a whole lot of determination, great albums can be produced without the help of record labels. Considering how much music I've been listening to this past two weeks, it's one hell of a statement that the music I sing and that goes round in my head as I go about my daily life is from this album, exclusively. And isn't that a sign of a really successful and special album?

Although in fairness, they may need the assistance of some sort of label if this excellent music is to get to the mass market they clearly want and need to reach. If they can get the right backing, cloudcover could be damn huge. I just hope they remember their number one fan when they make it big! Front row seat, guys! Front row seat, and backstage pass.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018