The MG Album Club: #49 - Angels Of Light - How I Loved You

Unsomnambulist · Mar 9, 2020

Angels Of Light - How I Loved You

Given the year, I could've gone with some very obvious choices. Instead, I have selected a more obscure selection.

Michael Gira, the principal here, is a complex man with a checkered history. There is no doubt that he is a musical genius, however.

As an aside, my brain is unable to process that 2001 was 19 years ago.

Old Uncle Toe · Mar 24, 2020

This was a tough listen. I got to track 7 and it was so overwhelmingly depressing that I gave it up.

I have nothing against sad or even depressing music. A good Adagio is a wonderful listen. I listen to tons of blues music. I like Echo and The Bunnymen. But this is so far down the hole, in the instrumentation, the vocal style and the lyrics that I'm just unable to enjoy it.

No judgment on the music. Not every album is for every body. This one is just not to my taste.

axolotl · Mar 24, 2020

Old Uncle Toe said:
This was a tough listen. I got to track 7 and it was so overwhelmingly depressing that I gave it up.

I have nothing against sad or even depressing music. A good Adagio is a wonderful listen. I listen to tons of blues music. I like Echo and The Bunnymen. But this is so far down the hole, in the instrumentation, the vocal style and the lyrics that I'm just unable to enjoy it.

No judgment on the music. Not every album is for every body. This one is just not to my taste.

I am only now listening to this. In terms of sad and depressing music, OUT, how would you relate it to A Crow Looked at Me?

P. S. Feel free not to respond if you feel this to be an exercise in futility or is agonizing. I didn't intend it to be. Then, I gave it some more thought.

Old Uncle Toe · Mar 24, 2020

axolotl said:
I am only now listening to this. In terms of sad and depressing music, OUT, how would you relate it to A Crow Looked at Me?

I've never listened to that album. I'll give it a shot.

In the first few tracks of the album I can say this: If I ignore the vocals and melodies altogether, the instrumentation and chord patterns of A Crow Looked at Me are almost pleasant. Where How I Loved You has that from time to time, often the arrangements are harsh, or dissonant, or menacing. That added to the message of despair. I think Mount Eerie chooses to mostly give their message through the lyrics, and to some degree through the minor keys of the melodies. Although IMO even those minor key melodies aren't as hard to listen to.

I agree with Unsom, that Michael Gira is quite adept at evoking his message, through several avenues at once.

I wish I were a musician so I could analyze this a little better. It would be interesting to deconstruct How I Loved You and understand how it does that voodoo so well.

axolotl · Mar 24, 2020

Wonderful response.

Old Uncle Toe said:
I've never listened to that album. I'll give it a shot.

I thought you had. Evidently, it was someone else who was both passionate and articulate ...hence I thought it was you. A Crow Looked at Me is my go-to album for raw emotion, as Phil Elvrum wrote only a few weeks after his wife's death from cancer. It's sublimely beautiful but almost unlistenable in its intensity.

Having finished How I Loved You, I can say that, overall I appreciated it. The arrangements are harsh and dissonant, indeed. It wallowed in the mirk and mire of minor keys, almost without respite (at least I didn't hear any respite). Michael Gira's growl seems menacing in a way that, say, Dave Alvin's is warm, and thus not menacing.

"New York City of the Future" goes on for too long. But that is the power of drone.

I will listen to HILY again. As for now, it gets the :3.5:

. Which way it goes after that, I do not know.

Nickyboy · Mar 30, 2020

I listened to this again twice today.
How I Loved this Album. Indeed, I did. And interestingly enough, I didn't even pay attention to what the lyrics were saying, because I was working and had to concentrate, so I didn't get side-tracked by the melancholy of the lyrics. I treated Gira's voice like another instrument in the lush, haunting arrangements. The opening track, "Evangeline", is just breath-taking to me, as are "Jennifer's Sorry" and "Song for Nico". I will say that I found his off-key singing in "My Suicide" and "My True Body" annoying, but maybe that's because, again, I was listening to him as an instrument. And that instrument needed to be tuned on those tracks!
This is very, very good and I will definitely listen to this again. It's rich, and complex enough to have grabbed me on first listen. And sometimes with albums like that, I am reticent to check out the artist's other works for fear that they won't live up to my first impression. But, this is beautiful.
:4.5:

Ojai Sam · Apr 5, 2020

Nickyboy said:
I listened to this again twice today.
How I Loved this Album. Indeed, I did. And interestingly enough, I didn't even pay attention to what the lyrics were saying, because I was working and had to concentrate, so I didn't get side-tracked by the melancholy of the lyrics. I treated Gira's voice like another instrument in the lush, haunting arrangements. The opening track, "Evangeline", is just breath-taking to me, as are "Jennifer's Sorry" and "Song for Nico". I will say that I found his off-key singing in "My Suicide" and "My True Body" annoying, but maybe that's because, again, I was listening to him as an instrument. And that instrument needed to be tuned on those tracks!
This is very, very good and I will definitely listen to this again. It's rich, and complex enough to have grabbed me on first listen. And sometimes with albums like that, I am reticent to check out the artist's other works for fear that they won't live up to my first impression. But, this is beautiful.

I agree with Nick here. With independent music, unlike rootsy music, I've discovered that I enjoy it more if I don't focus too much on the words. Michael Gira is a master of the sonic landscape and his blend of acoustica with a hint of electronica works for me here. Even "Two Women" at nearly 12 minutes passed quickly for me. Maybe that's because I'm reading this novel right now and enjoying it greatly: