29052011

The Appleseed Cast - Low Level Owl: Volume II (2001)

(post-rock / emotional indie rock)

 

The second volume of Low Level Owl is said to be the magnum opus of The Appleseed Cast - the high-light of their whole production. After consuming the album for multiple times, I concur. Beginning from where the first volume left off with A View Of A Burning City, the second volume begins with a track with the same name, adjoining the two volumes in a heavy combination of light music. The music is almost ethereal in its calmness and you can't help but to be overtaken with the cotton-like melodies that sooth your brains into a meaningless mass while your body drifts away in the warm wind.

The progressive building towards the climax of A Place In Line starts right from the beginning of the song and gives a certain feeling of power to the album. The track also shows how the band is capable of stopping the whole song by turning it in a slow, near-silent melody where the world seems to stand still.

I have absolutely fallen in love with The Appleseed Cast's way of balancing their album out with short, in-between tracks where the music seems to stop. Shaking Hands is an excellent demonstration of this and the whole Low Level Owl album duo becomes so tightly bound together by these short tracks that I can't help but to admire this ability. Rooms and Gardens and Ring Out The Warning Bell turn the sled completely towards the post-rock route of this musical city and the two tracks in their whole length leave you wandering in your mind without ever getting lost. With Sunset Drama King thirding this continuing post-rock tale all the way to The Last Line In Line the music becomes a stream of sounds that feel to move ever on.

By this second volume you're convinced that The Appleseed Cast does not include raw, emotional songs in their albums anymore. The emotive lyrics do remain but the soreness in Crisci's voice is long gone and in this case the only constant, change, is definitely good. Reaction gives a hint of the previous emotionality but doesn't let you enjoy it anymore for more than just two and a half minutes. Confession towers over the whole album with its dark ambience, distant voices of some passers-by on a solemn train station. Its a magnificent way to end such a positively mellow album and reminds me of God Is An Astronaut's ending track to All Is Violent, All Is Bright where Everything Dies stole the whole atmosphere of the album.

All in all, the Low Leve l Owl albums are simply the best The Appleseed Cast can offer but they're not the best way to start listening to the band. They can be fully enjoyed when you have learned what the band is about in their true nature and how these two albums are the cornerstone of their discography.

18052011

The Appleseed Cast - Mare Vitalis (2000)
(emotional indie rock / post-rock)  

The Appleseed Cast presents their second piece in their ever-growing puzzle of albums. Mare Vitalis is a clearly cleaner record than the previous The End Of The Ring Wars with its distinctive guitars that race around your front yard like dogs after their favorite ball. Crisci's voice has lost its tears and while still not being note-perfect it brings forth a strong, personal asset to the album. The Appleseed Cast tries to adapt to a new genre everytime they make an album. Whether it's emotional rock, lighter indie rock or post-rock they get stuck on the road of mediocrity. With their frequent adaption they've created a versatile discography but none of the albums define the band's own personality. On Kilgore Trout they sound like the previous themselves, on Mare Mortis they sound like your typical change-of-the-millenium post-rock group and on Santa Maria they sound something like a This Town Needs Guns predecessor. Yet, they seems to lack the elements to fully break through to a concentrated audience.

Reaching ocean
Walked for days
Reaching ocean 

The album isn't a huge step forward from the debut, it's more like a step sideways. The raw emotion is gone and its replaced with mostly soothing melodies of mornings that make you smile and summers that make you cry. Pillar's guitar work seems to fly like free pidgeons and Baruth's widely credited intricate drumming shows throughout this sea-thematized concept album.

The songs are turning into the more and more instrumental direction, which they will achieve in the later production of the band. The lyrics have been simplified from the previous work and consist of only a few meaningful lines of longing, love and loneliness. Love out of reach, love lost and love to be longed for are strongly depicted through various sea-related metaphors where Crisci's simple, yet eloquent way with words strikes you with the trident of Poseidon. The interpretation of the lyrics doesn't require a master's thesis in linguistics - the words crush on you like foam-headed waves on a golden beach.

I always know where I am
by the way the road looks
The sea brings me back to you 

The beauty of the album lies in its simplicity. Throw yourself into the sea of vitality.

.take these words and write them down.

17052011

The Appleseed Cast - The End Of The Ring Wars (1998)

 (emotional rock)

I started listening to The Appleseed Cast's production for the second time right from the beginning, The End Of The Ring Wars, where the band's own style hadn't yet developed to its full potential but showed definite promises of a bright future. The late 90s consisted of a strong emo movement and The Appleseed Cast hopped on the band wagon with their debut record and made a name for themselves, breaking through from the general emo bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate. There is no extra material on this disc – just your basic emo mash-up of cracking vocals, smooth percussion lineage and traditional, repetitive guitar riffs with your occasional breakdowns. The emphasis is laid upon the honest vocals of Christopher Crisci and the story of lost love and gaining it back depicted in the songs throughout the album.

Musically the album doesn't strike me as anything clearly above average. I've become too used to emo-labeled bands that even though the Kansas foursome provides excellent, original emo music, I can't get the grip from it nowadays. Yet, I can imagine any high school kid in the late 1990s being all over this album with their headphones over their heads, laying down on their beds in their own rooms, locked up with this album playing in the background. The music is explosive at times and brings you back to the ground with soft melodies at others and there are some exceptionally neat additions to some songs, such as the saxophone of Stars, which I think I accidentally fell in love with.

What truly astounds me about this album is the lyrical mastery behind such emotions. The current emotional bands tend to thrive in bland choruses, non-versatile descriptive words and the excessive use of the words pain and agony. The Appleseed Cast provides none of this. The lyrics bring you back to your youth and you're just lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling an a hot summer night, or is the morning already? The lyrics are poetry of the young emotions. First true love, or which you thought to be true love, the feeling that no one understands you and the harsh losses, which at the time felt like barriers too great to overcome but which you have now forgot.

In my opinion Moment #72 provides every piece of emotion the band has to offer in lyrics. The End Of The Ring Wars might just be the album of my summer. Lonely days full of sunshine, emotions without meanings and the wait for nothing and everything.

Secrets of
curtains love
blinds.
a hideaway

Long hand falls
The moment slows down
and nothing moves
Count the second's passage
Lies concealed your hands
Wear this moment's wretched
finery
This moment's words, this moment's words fade away
The silence says, the silence says more
The secrets fall 

You shout out lies by just standing there
A face of smile
I could not see you,
only my reflection