Review: The New Heaven and The New Earth – All Saints Day (EP)
![The New Heaven and the New Earth - All Saints' Day [2009] [EP]](http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/92/l_ab3fc0e17632493db9fde235a6ac6178.jpg)
The New Heaven and the New Earth read a totally different bible than I did. They flipped past the child-like wonderment and saw only the darkness. With the band’s first release they land a place immediately into the stormy night bin. At first listen, a cheap Funeral. Just another Arcade Fire influence group of kids trying to make church backgrounds and tortured souls. Then, upon another go so much more pops it’s head up. Instruments you didn’t hear the first time. Beauties uncovered from the opaque mist that surrounds the first listen. Next, You hear the lyrics. Sick and twisted, more so than any AF song, but unlike so many bands like them, the lyrics actually have meaning. This is where their second obvious influence comes in. The Beatles. I know, I know everyone has been influenced by the fab four, but New Heaven/Earth, know which Beatles songs they like. Listen to the recently remastered Sgt. Peppers, then this, then tell me its not frighteningly similar. Like a children’s bible story done by Tim Burton. Horrifying, yet beautiful. A deep sorrow covers this entire album. From start to finish I can’t shake the feeling of seeing the end of days from inside an old middle-age church. Even the lighter tracks are covered with haunting arrangments and anything but biblical lyrics. No this is a beast all to itself.
To open almost instantly you hear the instrument that carries this entire sound of the band. The harp or I assume, auto-harp. “Noah” is steeped in horror. “When we were one you nearly broke your neck”, opens the track. I mean come on. The song drifts from the terrifying background vocals to the comforting harp. Or if you like the other way around. The guitar picking near the end of the song is the only breath or fresh air we get in this one.
Upon listen 1 “Dry Stalk” seems a weak track. I feel differently after I’ve heard the album a few times. This song provides some relief from the heavy, nearly overbearing weight from the rest of the EP. Nice, but still dark.
“Simon”, does it for me. I’m usually not one to cross over to the dark side much but in this case, I’ll make the exception. My folk is light, airy, and fun. Not this. Not this brutal, tortured piece, which sounds like a man of faith suddenly losing it, alone in his room. Creepy. The back-up singers do nothing to change this. In an almost Poe like form the character slowly drifts down till his death. “Simon” is what makes this release work. Wow.
In “Saint Valentine” is where we get our first appearance from singer, Gabrielle Smith and her perfectly eerie vocals, singing of sirens and flying in children’s heads’ while they sleep. I biggest thing I hear is not the voice, but the playing of the piano in the background. It’s played as though possessed, or haunted. Seriously, you know all those ghost chaser shows on the air these days, it’s like one of those moments. Kind of an, oh shit what’s behind me. Then the screech. someone help me out with this instrument. this screeching that attempts to harmonize with the piano is just plain wicked. It’s nice to hear Gabrielle in the foreground, instead of singing backup hymns.
“Saint Muerte” is probably the Ep’s low point. The song hardly differs from anything on Sgt. Peppers and only step outside that box to show us that they can also sound exactly like the aforementioned Arcade Fire.
“Saint Francis/Benedict” is a different story. While there are noticeably two songs hear, it’s way cooler that they combined them into one. First, “Saint Francis”, a Tom Waits wearing a preacher suit singing about cocaine and his downfall. This part of the album is almost as dark as “Simon”. The organs, the cello and of course the auto-harp all come together to help this man’s death. Then, “Benedict”, or his rebirth. A rising, swirling series of strings and higher notes climaxing long enough through the vocals, actually left from darkness, only to get you excited for whats to come, then, a crash. The song, ep, sound, band disappears, or rather vanishes.
What I took from New Heaven/Earth is a startling surprise addition to the summer rotation. This is not a summer album, much like it’s peers’ albums aren’t. But, still a great listen after you get past the fact that basically this is the Arcade Fire smashed with experimental Beatles laced with daringly spooky playing and songwriting, which takes a very short time……….anxiously awaiting the debut LP. As always let me know.
Terrell
