LogFAQs > #889025718

This one a day thing is really not working out. I think the fact that I know I can finish one in a day has made it way easier for me to procrastinate, whereas when I had to finish two I was so worried about not getting it done that I started working on them as soon as I got home. Didn't even have time (read: wasted the time) to read this one over, so apologies for grammar/typos. I'm going to need more discipline.

Eyedea & Abilities - By The Throat

But time taught me how to see every second as Heaven
Even though they're perfectly disguised as Hell

Its a good thing I dont really do these in a day anymore because it took me a while to really understand what this album was talking about. First I was a little bit thrown off by the fact that it was rap. For some reason I just wasnt expecting that genre coming from Blur, probably because weve spent so much time talking about rock music. But once I really started listening rather than just playing these songs in the background I realized that despite the fact that it was produced by a DJ its basically a rock album, and that the concepts covered here are very, very Blur.

Eyedea has some really interesting takes on life, addiction, relationships, suffering and, well I guess I could have just ended at life. This is definitely an album that deserves to have its lyrics pored over and I think I would still be lost if Genius didnt exist. Despite clocking in under 30 minutes, this is an incredibly dense album that tackles some really deep issues. Some of my favourite moments come during the track This Story. From the first second it grabs your attention with an electronic riff that seems to have been absolutely mangled by a bitcrusher and it sounds fucking badass. The song itself seems to deal with the history of humanity (no big deal), but the part that really gripped me was the final few bars talking about deeply fear and violence are buried in our DNA. I always found it weird how so many people think that violence is something that will always exist in our species and that its something we simply have to deal with and try to lessen, rather than eradicate. Its not even that Eyedea is outlining a plan by which we could do this, but something I appreciate about the idea of just imploring people to be better at controlling impulse and fighting base instincts instead of resigning to the fact that were animals and slaves to our nature.

Smile is another track that really gets me. It actually feels quite Buddhist in its delivery as the song repeats the idea that life is filled with suffering, and that suffering is both inevitable and unavoidable but thats still no reason not to smile and try to look for the best in any situation. Im not going to pretend that its a brand new idea, or that doing this is a quick and easy way to make your life more enjoyable but I do find it incredibly true and I think its something that needs to be practiced every day, no matter how bad things get. Its an easy viewpoint to pooh-pooh and argue that it only works until some REAL bad shit happens to you, but I honestly think thats simply what makes it a difficult and worthy practice because there is almost always a positive, no matter how slight it may be.

Aff. It looks like Ive gone back to talking around the music rather than about it, but it was kind of hard with this album as it drew on a lot of things Ive read, thought about or have been practicing for the past several years. I can honestly say that I was not at all in love with the sound of it after the first few listens, but the content really made me reexamine and appreciate the production and delivery much more than I thought I would. This album is a real lyrical gem.

Final Rating: Bars/10
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http://soundcloud.com/thundersheep/these-beautiful-nightmares