Josef K

Album: Even Wolves Dream
Artist: Anthony Miles / a bunch of wolves, hopefully
Recommended by: Trollheart
Familiarity: none

1. Even Wolves Dream: Whoa, opens with some sick howling. I figured there'd be wolves on this, but I didn't count on the chorus of crickets as well. Now there are some chimes and actual people singing - I think - and now some chill guitar. Honestly too chill, but I can totally see this as, like, a movie score. Could use it with a long shot of somebody looking introspective, or, like, a slow pan over the wilderness just after sunset. I can't hear any wolves anymore, but this is pretty cool I guess. I probably wouldn't return to it but if I were to really need something peaceful this would absolutely get the job done.

Oh, there are some wolves again. I'm kind of not into the howling anymore - this album needs to either commit to the concept and include lots of howls or just cut them out entirely. So, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is he's underutilizing the wolves. I'm only six minutes in but I'm liking this a whole lot more than I expected to. It kind of needs to go somewhere though - if the next fifteen minutes of the track are just this same thing repeating then I'll get really annoyed with it, which will be a shame. So a bunch of instruments are dropping out now and it's kind of doing something different - it's only the guitar (I think) and the strings. The cool thing is that when it gets more silent I hear the crickets some more. Anyway I guess the wolf is back from his smoke break and he's picking up where he left off.

Around the 11 minute mark the track changes things up again, but I'm really getting sick of the guitar or keyboard or whatever that is. It's sort of hard for me to listen to something like this that's just very peaceful and doesn't really build - I like Slowdive, but... that's actually the closest I get to this, or like the Clientele or something. Now we're back to the initial melody that's been played throughout and there are another few wolf howls. Everything has faded out and it's just crickets and wolves now, so I guess the last five minutes are just the track getting back to where it was five minutes ago. But yeah I kind of like the flute or whatever it is. I will say that although I'm not hating it like I did that Lil Ugly Mane album, I will be happy when the track is done. It's just sort of uninteresting. Anyway the same melody that's been repeated the whole time is playing us out and the wolf is back to noise-making.

2. Wolf Companion: I'm going to pretend that the wolves are making sex noises. This isn't that funny but I like the idea of such a peaceful album actually being filled with the sounds of animals violently ****ing - although I'm pretty sure that's what the cricket noises actually are. Anyway we're back with pretty much the same mix of sounds as track #1, but there's more emphasis on what I again think is a choir. Sounds kinda like that Kamasi Washington album I didn't like. I was just listening to very chill, very peaced-out album - Yo La Tengo's Fade - which I love, but I love this a lot less. It's not even terrible is the thing, it's just that it should really only go on for five - wait, stop, those horny wolves are back to interrupting the heavenly choir's party. That's so rude. Oh, well, looks the choir's made a full recovery.

In fact I think the wolves are gatecrashing this album in that they're making noises which kind of clash with the general feel I think he's going for. Like, okay, we get it, even wolves dream. But if their dreams are going to be about wolves, why can't they be about a lot of wolves? I'd love to hear Five Wolves Singing, but that isn't what this is.

I guess I like this track a little more, the strings are pretty nice. Who knows how much I'd like it if it were shorter and if I hadn't just listened to 20 minutes of pretty much the same sound? I called some element of this album "heavenly" earlier, but I think my hell would actually be having to listen to stuff like this for an eternity. Which, you know, is not to say it isn't nice enough for 40 minutes, although it in fact isn't. This was fine for the first few minutes - I was really enjoying it and that really surprised me - but by the end I will be ready to die of boredom.

Around the fifteen-minute mark things fade out again and we just hear the keyboards or whatever. Then the choir comes back in, which is pretty cool. If I had to pick I'd say this is my favorite part of the album yet and I'd be quite into it were it not for the last 35 minutes. That's the thing - I don't think this album is meant for the way I'm listening to it, I think you're supposed to fall asleep to it or something, listen to it in some situation where you won't mind the repetition, but that isn't really the way I listen to music. If Trollheart wants he can blame me and not the album, but I just can't get into this and I'd like it to be over. Luckily for me, it almost is - less than two minutes left. Here are the crickets again, and we end how we began, as the keyboard fades out and we're left with just howls and crickets.

So, yeah, I didn't enjoy that but it was still better than Lil Ugly Mane. DWV warned me about him and I was too foolish to listen.