Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid
(Kranky)
Beginning with Per Aspera Ad Astra, Stars of the Lid began introducing a greater sense of melody into their music. This melodic sense was further developed on the excellent album Avec Laudenum, and it has an ever greater presence on this album. Added, also, to the characteristic sea of warm drones are a wider variety of instruments including strings, horns, and piano.
This greater sense of melody, however, is not at the expense of--or extraneous to--the thick, deep drones that have become Stars of the Lid's trademark. The strains of strings, for example on the first track, "Requiem for Dying Mothers Part 1," seem to exist within the space of the drone, not tacked on artificially. The result is something remarkably coherent; they have managed to add a far greater sense of melody as well as multiple instruments and still maintain the presence and coherence of their previous simpler, less melody-oriented work.
"Austin Texas Mental Hospital" parts 1-3, are just what you would expect from Stars of the Lid songs: dense warm drones, that create a palpable atmoshpere and presence, that seem to breathe or pulse at a glacial pace. On the second disc, "Gasfarming" adds to this atmosphere some additional textures, by inserting between "breaths" a sort of scratching or wavering static sound--a sublte touch, but at this pace, and being in the sort of haze that you are while you listen to Stars of the Lid, even the slightest change in texture feels like a revelation. "Piano Aquieu," appropriately, is based mostly on a simple piano melody allowed to ring out so that every vibration of every chord is felt.
The entire album of 2 CDs or 3 LPs maintains and sustains this level of presence and depth with whatever methods are chosen--melody or pure drone, multiple instruments or single instruments. It also maintains this depth with, honestly, no real weak points. It seems that Mr. Wiltzie and Mr. McBrides' experiments with atmosphere and texture over the past years have certainly paid off as this is easily the best Stars of the Lid record and possibly one of the best records of its kind altogether.
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