THE COLD WALL

Our world has seen its share of ups and downs no matter what generation of people you research. Even today, we are somehow unable to escape the violence in society. School shootings, mass murders, war, etc. have unwillingly become part of the daily news. It isn’t surprising that artists around the world have shown their emotions towards all the hate in the world through their art. Take Porcupine Tree, whose 2007’s Fear Of A Blank Planet resonated their view of today’s blistering culture through a drug-subdued, confused kid. Now, Archive has released their newest record and their own point of view of humanity. The record, entitled Controlling Crowds, focuses on society and the lack of freedom that people have in a world. Themes such as gun control, violence, media, depression, isolation, and dependence swathe this record from beginning to end but somewhere along the line, we get lost in the rubble ourselves.

Over the years, Archive have developed music that could place itself into almost every genre from progressive-rock to trip hop and from post-rock to hip-hop. On Controlling Crowds, Archive further explores the musical world incorporating ambient and electronic music more so then ever before. Rapper Rosko John rejoins the band for the first time since Archive’s successful debut, Londinium. Mary Q joins adding a much needed female presence to the record, whose ranging vocals make her the highlight of the album. Her gentle voice soothes us after ruthless beating electronics that make up Crowd’s storyline.

The albums initial flaw comes with track one, the title track. Even though the traditions of post-rock / progressive-rock have always maintained a long complicated score, Archive did not have to fill each track on Controlling Crowds with bulging compositions because of the lyrical themes. “Controlling Crowds” comes in at 10+ minutes and almost 5 of those minutes are dedicated to a repeated note on the organ and synthesizer. After about three minutes of this, it already becomes apparent that the record’s musical composition is going to be rather dry. This track though, begins to peak towards the end as some much desired lyrics flash in but the song is unable to be salvaged because of its undesirable rhythm and boring structure. “Bullets” though, gives us the albums first glance into what the major themes and motifs of Controlling Crowds are meant to be as the song discusses gun violence. “Dangervisit” reinstitutes these same themes and adds depression, mind control, and isolation to the mix. By now, we have an idea of where this record is trying to take us but we are unsure of how - or even if we are willing - to take the journey because of the tedious compositions lack excitement.

Mary Q, the strength of this album, finally comes in on “Collapse/Collide”, the strongest track on the record and maybe one of the most fascinating tracks of the year. Its trip-hop influence is incredibly beautiful as the down tempo rhythm on drums and keyboards captivates us along with Mary Q’s calm, nurturing voice making the song incredibly epic. Each track inconspicuously runs into one another which is a real potency for the album. On the very next track, “Clones”, we hear more of her voice sooth the ballad-like instrumentation while harmonizing with Dave Pen, lead singer of Archive, and we are once again entranced. Rosko John also plays a huge part for this album. His raps are both honest and meaningful to the themes of the album. His lyrics are the main runway for the storyline to take flight and without them, we might be completely lost in what the album is fully about. Take “Quiet Time” for example, he implements the state of the human race and adheres to the same themes that the album is trying to evaluate. His raps bring the record to a whole new imperative level that cannot be fondled with.

Controlling Crowds has one big problem though. It drags on like being stuck on a ferris wheel - it just keeps going around in circles. By prolonging their tracks, Archive may have gained a surprise effect but lost any sense of dynamic quality. When an album does this it usually walks a sparse rope, especially if the music is fluffy and uneventful. Luckily though, most of the musical composition is very ambitious as we hear a profusion of different instruments and melodic motifs. Still, the lyrics detract from the album’s excitement as lines are repeated over and over leaving a listener without any sense of direction. At times the lyrics do hold a special significance but as the songs become longer and longer, the lyrics fade away taking away from their sincerity. Archive need to be honored for their ambitious thematic elements, but their undeniably sterile sound and song structure feels like this album ran 20 minutes too long.

-Eric