Contemporary Forms of Fiction
Post 1: The reasons why you should listen to this album: An Awesome Wave by Alt-J
It is hard to fit the musical stylings of Alt-J into a box- but the efficacy with which they manage to follow a rhyme and reason of their own making as they weave between multiple genres has remained incomparable.
The debut album of British indie-synth-folktronica-alt-pop-rock band Alt-J, titled An Awesome Wave, released in 2012 with thirteen tracks that combine the use of instrumental breaks, haunting vocal harmonies as well as heavy, symbolic lyrics to tell tales of love and obsession, while also incorporating various historical and pop-culture references to create a musical retelling of certain stories from the past.
Artfully alternating the production-heavy, lyrically intricate songs on their tracklist with shorter interludes consisting of single-instrument playing, An Awesome Wave gives the listener the chance to take in the stories told in songs like “Tessellate”, “Breezeblocks”, and “Taro”, while simultaneously creating a cohesive musical pattern throughout the album- a pattern wherein every change in beat, pace, instrument and tone somehow makes perfect sense.
Lyrically, aside from the album’s haunting melodies and the originality behind the harmonies created by the lead and backup vocalists, the band’s specialty lies in telling tales of pain and love through bright, visual images taken from famous paintings, movies, and stories of historical figures. One such song, “Taro”, talks about the love shared between two war photojournalists, Gerda Taro and Robert Capa, who were both killed, at different occasions, during the First Indochina War. Right before the main melody of the song in the refrain, performed through hypnotic Indian pop-style guitar plucking, Joe Newman, the lead singer delivers the line “Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes”. This line is one of the many examples of plays on words that the band is famous for in their lyrics. The line mentions a common warning given on the stickers on insect repellent, followed then by a clever rewrite, “I have sprayed you into my eyes”- alluding to Capa’s undeniable love and connection to his deceased partner, Gerda Taro- whom he struggles to be able to look away from in his grief.
One of their more popular, bass-heavy rock songs, Tessellate- discusses a love triangle involving a man and his tumultuous lover, as well as a new girl who he has gotten involved with as a way to move on from the pain caused from his relationship. The refrain of the song, begins with “Triangles are my favorite shape; three points where two lines meet”, referring to the love triangle he has found himself in, as well as to the band’s name itself- Alt-J- which is a common keyboard combination that is used to create a Delta- or triangle-sign on the computer. The lyrics continue, “Toe to toe, back to back, let’s go…..’til morning comes; Let’s tessellate”. These words carry on the comparison of mathematical terms with the love affair- with the word “tessellate” referring to the mathematical meaning of objects fitting in between each other, and, for the purposes of the song, referring to sex.
Instrumentally, Tessellate creates a memorable, hypnotizing and alarming sort of piano-chanting that sets off a strong drum beat and bassline that manages to both stun and capture attention as well as take the sidelines to the vocal message of the song.
Aside from their ability to embed art and pop-culture quotes and references amidst somber lyrics of lost love and obsession, the debut album of Alt-J proves their prowess in music production and originality as well. Almost each song appears to come from a different plane of reality; it appears as if the creators of these songs never considered following any genre to begin with, and yet, in the process of creating their music still managed to create a cohesive whole for their album.
Their musical narrative gives room for experimentation in beat patterns, in moods, in instrumental hooks, as well as in terms of how symbolically they want to write as they tell a story they picked up from from a movie they loved as children. Their lyrical references take a while to catch on to, but once you do; the story they weave alongside their instrumental breaks in songs appear to make all the more sense.
This album, as well as this band, is undeniably original, captivating, yet skillfully pieced and still culturally relevant in their production style. Post the release and success of their debut album, Alt-J has continued to work with the original folk-electronic rock sound they came up with together while proving to their listeners that they are not afraid to dive into more popular, rhythmic and hip-hop-infused production as well- albeit, still making it completely their own.
