In lead singer Owen Murphy’s own words, “There’s no way someone like me can make a record right now without what’s happening in the world shaping it in some form.” New Age Healers’ Blowing Smoke Through The Choir takes the personal and the universal and amalgamates them into a package of post-punk, grunge, and shoegaze music, accompanied by elusive lyrics that leave plenty of space for extrapolation.
The opening track “The Fastest Slow” introduces the dreary undertones lyrically, but the vocal delivery and instrumentation are so breezy that the track sounds really groovy and summery. The musical dialogue between the guitar and the vocals towards the end gives it an especially upbeat quality.
“Moored” opens with a beatbox-like drumbeat, which becomes the foundational rhythm of the song. It is a fatalistic track wrapped in pretty imagery. I think that the album (and this track) is best experienced through the added lens that Owen’s comments lend. While it can be listened to as an album about two lovers on a self-destructive path, it also reflects the society’s resignation and an almost wilful progression towards a bleak future.
What follows is “Lost It All”, a heavier and grungier track with stomping drums and guitar. The progression has a tunnel-like quality as the vocals become expansive and the sonic space opens up towards the chorus.
“Falling Apart”, on the other hand, opens with a very punk-rock quality. The texture of the guitar further on has a hypnotic effect, and the vocals sound a lot like psychedelic-rock. The themes of the world and the self falling apart continue; this is also the clearest statement we get that everything is obviously going wrong. Jeramy Koepping really shines in this track for me with some amazing guitar work.
Owen’s and Elisha’s vocal harmonies lend a completely different quality to the album, as Owen’s vocals ground, while Elisha’s voice adds a flair that makes the lyrics stand out from the instrumentals.
“Ultra” is one of my favorite songs on the record. Underlying it are the themes of a surveillance state and someone on the run from these seemingly harmless eyes that are everywhere. The sound is reminiscent of the early ’90s grunge music, and the guitar is murky and jagged. The tonal shift is obvious as the album leans more into the dreariness that underlies it thematically. Aaron Benson’s work on the percussion makes the song really interesting by breaking the pace and giving the listener some space to breathe. It feels a lot like coming up for air for a second, and then going back to drowning.
The elusive storytelling continues in “Diamond Thief”, against a wall of sound before everything fades away to make space for the guitar. This is the ultimate shoegaze track on the album.
From here on, the themes of destruction and catastrophe become even more evident. There is “melting” and “acid rain” in “Sunday Bed”, which is a vocal-reliant track where Murphy is joined by Valerie Green of Karate, Guns & Tanning. And then there is a ton of “breaking” and “shaking” in “You’re the Sun” as the violence takes center stage.
Choppy and fast-paced guitar and drums make up “Devotion”, which was the most lyrically resonant song on the project for me. The insignificance and disposability of human beings is at the core of the track: the system emerges as an abstract enemy that we think we have defeated, but which is eventually going to “knock you out”.
But surprisingly, or maybe not-so-surprisingly, the album ends with a very hopeful and optimistic song in the form of “Lacuna”. The music here has the quality of a new dawn: It is slow and bright, like the first rays of sunshine. Even the few seconds of blankness at the end seem intentional as a blank state for the world to start on, even if only symbolically.
The thematic arc of the album introduces the dread that we face today, intensifies it, makes us confront ourselves as being complicit in this self-destruction, and then resigns to it. But the album still manages to end on a note of optimism, leaving a bittersweet feeling.
Blowing Smoke Through The Choir is experimental, diverse, and important, and offers both truth and comfort. And New Age Healers are going to be performing in St. Paul, Minnesota and Chicago on October 16 and 17 respectively, so if you are around, go catch them live!
Take a listen to “Ultra” below.
Written by Riya
