Religious music and albums about break-ups aren\u2019t my usual fare. The tone and message of both are neither unusual or groundbreaking \u2013 Jesus rules for the former, while ex-boy\/girlfriends suck for the latter. But what if someone were to merge the two, penning an album about breaking up with religion. How would that sound?<\/p>\n
Simply amazing, as it turns out.<\/p>\n
Taylor Muse, the driving force behind Austin\u2019s Quiet Company, has created a rich tapestry of questioning faith and engaging music in the band\u2019s latest effort We Are All Where We Belong. The hour-long opus of personal struggle is backed with indie pop eliciting The Beatles, Coldplay, Death Cab For Cutie and Thursday, making for a brisk blend that is never tiresome or staid. It\u2019s a damn revelation.<\/p>\n
Engineered by Tim Palmer (who has worked with Pearl Jam, U2 and The Cure), We Are All Where We Belong moves along in big chunks, each song a chapter in Muse\u2019s journey. A church organ chimes at the outset of \u201cThe Confessor,\u201d the album\u2019s opening salvo, as Muse sets the mood: \u201cThe river\u2019s wide and I could not swim across it\/ So I convinced myself I walked along the waves,\u201d he sings, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t want to waste my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s plenty of introspection to follow. The lively \u201cYou, Me & The Boatman\u201d follows, an enthusiastic song where Muse slowly shakes off a belief in the afterlife \u2013 \u201cThis existence is probably all we have\/ And so the lives we make are all that matter\u201d he sings amidst a fluid background or horns and drums.<\/p>\n
Quiet Company moves back and forth between loud outbursts and quaint resolve. \u201cWe Went To The Renaissance Faire\u201d has the band at it\u2019s rollicking best, with fast guitars and driving drums; \u201cEverything Louder Than Everything Else\u201d takes two minutes before the lyrics begin, but it\u2019s a treat to hear Muse fighting himself \u201cWhen I go, there will probably be no angels singing, no harps ringing,\u201d his voice rising, before a yelp of \u201cnothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sound is slick and sharp, with bright horns and intricate guitar strums, soft strings and just-right cymbals, all to help enunciate Muse\u2019s story of doubt and despair which slowly turns to elation and resolution. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about death, we\u2019re all gonna be just fine,\u201d Muse sings in \u201cAt Last! The Celestial Being Speak,\u201d before bellowing into a chorus of Hallelujah, a joyful release in sing-along clothes.<\/p>\n
We Are All Where We Belong is masterful work, a painting in music of vibrant imagery and meaning. Consider me a disciple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Religious music and albums about break-ups aren\u2019t my usual fare. The tone and message of both are neither unusual or groundbreaking \u2013 Jesus rules for the former, while ex-boy\/girlfriends suck for the latter. But what if someone were to merge the two, penning an album about breaking up with religion. How would that sound? Simply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[346,347],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-quiet-company","tag-we-are-all-where-we-belong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1271,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions\/1271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}