Stupidity Hole

I started this review back in October and finished it today.

At the start of last year I published a review of Eyeliner’s brb (found here) and I described the writing as transitional. I do want my writing to be more rambling in a sense, but more concise rambling. My reviewing has often been too rigid and not said enough, or much of anything. I’m trying to be more loose and move toward more narrative and writing or the experiential, because I feel I’m better at writing something more akin to a narrative than I am of a standard review. I’ve been pushing toward trying to analyse a work and talk about it rather than attempt to be a taste maker for a long time anyway, and that review was a big step in what I feel is the right direction, overall.

With Eunoia I took a further step into being more experiential in my writing, brought some of my friend’s experience into the review too. But it took a while to edit as it was a lot of small adjustments here and there, trying to clean the writing up without making it too rigid. I mostly got there.

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I hope you enjoy.

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When Eunoia was announced I felt apprehensive. I think I had a brief listen of “Beyond the Raindrops” and “Whiteout” when they came out in advance, but neither left me excited for hearing the whole thing. Envy songs are generally better in context and over time though, and my initial feeling wasn’t out of the ordinary for an upcoming release. As such, there was a good chance that after a few listens I’d feel better about it.

Anyway, Eunoia released on October 11th. I gave it a listen, and sure enough the material sounds like Envy’s work. “Piecemeal” didn’t win me over, but it sounded pleasant. A good way to open the album through its gentleness which continues through a gradual build and dissipation. Easy. Touching. Perhaps a little too close to “Tamayura”, but it also kind of feels like a continuation from where Seimei left off without being beholden to it, so it’s nice the way it is.

Next comes “Imagination and Creation” and its opening moments are highly dramatic, and something feels off. Then everything kicks into high gear and the idea of breathing space goes right out the window. Eunoia is fairly relentless, and generally Envy’s albums have mastering that veers close to overbearing. Here it’s overbearing. Audible distortion; passages becoming indistinct and muddy, sometimes to the point where percussion becomes difficult to make out.

Eunoia runs through a few moods but they’re as range-limited as the songs they’re within. You turn the volume up and the songs don’t have anywhere to go as they were already giving everything when played at a lower volume. Shortly after release I tried listening to it through three different setups and each one had the same result: loud, and distortion and indistinctness, but not in the “vague and dreamy” way. After the first and second listen I felt I’d gotten all the album had. I hadn’t, but it lacks the required range to fully express. It’s dynamic in the way many of Envy’s works are, but it never feels dynamic.

And that’s part of the reason why this write-up on the album has taken the time that it has, because the songs don’t deserve to have that focus taken away. However, when your new album sounds louder than Melt-Banana’s (3 + 5 at the time of this writing), it’s unpleasant trying to dig through to find something of substance to say beyond the go-tos for Envy: emotive music, blasts of energy, new approaches / styles / differing sounds / furthering their sound. Screams, spoken word and singing layer onto the moving nature of the songs as their instrumentation rages and swirls around. You know, something like that. And that’s also unfair as much like Envy’s prior albums, Eunoia offers more than the regular platitudes.

It’s easy to get tunnel vision with Envy, but among all the surface they often offer enough to dig into. I mean, listen to “Invisible Understanding” from Compiled Fragments, or their side of their split with Jesu, or just even “Shining Finger” from Athiest’s Cornea, with the way the synth smoothly does this sweeping, dramatic thing and rises up in what feels like a celebratory climax. Those songs have strong surface components, but they provide a depth and become stronger over repeat listens. You also get that with Eunoia, though in different forms of course.

You also get that with Eunoia, and it’s interesting in that it gets a lot of different things going in its short runtime. At times it feels like it’s rushing, and it feels like the first half rather than a complete package. It is a complete package though, and it touches on many emotive moments throughout its dense run. Those moments run through jagged playing, ideas of the sparse against full, holding back and letting loose, and the band work it from their energy with a great focus and precision. There are times when it becomes too much, however, as even in the gentler moments, it just doesn’t feel like it breathes. At all.

Recently my friend Darsh came around for a lazy day of hanging and talking. We did some card throwing, played Scrabble, had tea and listened to music. Something we listened to was Eunoia on vinyl. It might just be the worst-sounding record I own, and not by a small amount either. The mastering issues remained and were amplified which led to a dissatisfying experience. It was obvious enough that Darsh, someone who has far less interest in the mastering quality of music than I do, thought it was an issue.

There’s probably a good argument regarding records as a superfluous format. Digital has come a long way, and likely supersedes any audio quality benefits a record may offer. However, there’s something about spending the time with putting on one that makes you more an active participant in listening. I don’t think enough artists treat records as worthy of respect, however, and are too willing to accept lacklustre pressings. This seems more common when a record functions more as something to collect than something to listen to. I suspect that this was the intent behind the “warm grey” version.

So I struggled with Eunoia. So what? Underneath the master is an album that experiments with intensity, warmth, emotion, vocal processing and textural play, among other things. There’s some wonderful stuff going on and eventually it sort of sunk in, but the damage was done. Instead of appreciating the work, I was wondering what could have been.

I know I’m harping on here, but when I hear distortion on sounds growing quieter at a song’s end, I’m not struck by the beauty of the moment, but rather its unpleasantness. I think about the rhythmic, gentle start for “Beyond the Raindrops” and I dread what comes next as it almost entirely becomes a wall of loud. Eunoia‘s songs are great, but they’re not allowed to be great. Plenty of its moments are evocative, but listening to it is tiring. I want to properly hear the music, but there’s this big barrier in the way that pushes back.