As of this writing, I have listened to Manchester Orchestra’s new album, Simple Math, 77 times. In light of this title, let’s do a little math. I got my hands on the record 7 days ago. That’s 11 full listens a day, and considering the album is about 45 minutes in length, this comes to be about 500 minutes. Since there is about 1500 minutes in every 24 hour period, I have spent about a third of my entire week listening to Simple Math- counting sleep.
I know all the words, which again, are eloquent and powerful like almost any Manchester Orchestra song. I know all the nuances and waves of each track, how they bleed into each other. And I feel like I have a grasp of what Andy Hull, front man and main lyricist, is feeling and trying to put forward in this conceptual record of a reality gone awry. I feel like I’ve been living with this record since the dawn of my very existence. All this sounds awfully pretentious but let me just make this clear- Simple Math is the best album I have heard in a very very long time.
There is a lot the group is trying here, but it all appears to make sense in the context of the record. Let’s enter the buffet- opening track Deer offers a folksy little number that’s quaint and pretty in it’s stripped down and simplistic nature. Further down the aisle is April Fool, which seems to have the group letting loose, going for a straightforward rocker type, that never fails to disappoint. Of course, with your plate almost full, you have just enough room to fit Virgin, a behemoth of a song that uses harmonizing and background vocals to full effect, creating a soaring piece of music that encapsulates all that Manchester Orchestra do best. It’s booming, starting slow and building, only to climax and come full circle. If the band weren’t particuarly an orchestr5a before, I could see someone making comparisons once this song ends.
And it of course seeps into the title track, Simple Math, which makes one of the best back-to-back tracks I can witness in recent memory. It’s a powerful account of Andy Hull vocals at their best. He hurts. He has something to say. But it’s positive- the demons have been shed.
A notable track is Pale Black Eye, a romping escape of guitar-focused rock, that starts off with a rather odd melody that sets the tone for the rest of this track right out of left-field. The album also manages to close with Leaky Breaks, and despite it’s silly title, it’s a tour-de-force pulling bits and pieces from what Manchester have excelled in through their entire career. Beautiful melodies, somber vocals, and a climaxing tension that seems cataclysmic in its delivery and scope.
Manchester Orchestra are doing something that I see no band doing right now. They are making records (at a solid rate mind you) where each one adds a layer to the puzzle that becomes a worthy addition to their sound. And each record is not only getting better, but getting more advanced, more poetic and admirable. Their sound is unlike contemporaries, even easy comparisons to Brand New or Thrice fall short where Manchester Orchestra have a vocal falling unlike those. The only comparison to those acts is their diversity, and what kind of comparison is that?
Simple Math is gorgeous. I could list a whole collection of adjectives explaining the sounds contained in this disc, but it will seem silly and against the purpose entirely. You need to listen to this album. I need you to listen to this album. A slew of strings litter every song in the most appropriate of times, never jarring or egotistical, and Hull is at his best vocally. Where the first record, I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child, suffered from being too centralized, not enough ideas to support longevity- the second album, Mean Everything to Nothing, was too sprawling, the tracks going too long and the ending portion suffering from over-indulgence and retreading riffs. But Simple Math is focused and existential, a story being told that is as true as Hull wants you to believe by his sincere vocal cry. I ask any band to create an album as equally purposeful and organic as this one. For those who are in the know, well done, for Manchester Orchestra delivered an opus. For those just jumping on board, contemporary music has a new pedestal, and it’s called Simple Math.
10/10
Keepers for the IPOD (the entire album really, but the best…)
Pale Black Eye
Leave it Alone
Virgin
Simple Math
Leaky Breaks