Artist: Anathallo
Album: Floating World
Label: Artist Friendship
Tracks: 14
Length: 54:30
Review by: Luke Kruse

 

“Floating World,” the new record from Michigan seven-piece Anathallo, was not meant to be summed up in a 500 word review with some sort of arbitrary rating attached to it.  It was not meant to be reduced to an analysis of song structure, lyrical depth, and musicianship.  It was not meant to adorn the CD collections of music snobs so they have one more album by a band that no one has ever heard of.  “Floating World” is a record meant to be heard and loved as a work of art.  A record to be listened to over and over again and proudly talk about with friends.  It is a record to play over headphones before bed while reading along with the lyrics until passing into a dream.

 

With that out of the way, allow me to contradict the preceding paragraph and attempt to faithfully describe and critique the first true full-length album from this unfortunately obscure group of young men.  Anathallo is a band’s band, as the members are top notch musicians and multi-instrumentalists. As a group, they infuse the standard indie rock sound with influences in genres as diverse as jazz, classical, and choral music.  Some of the instruments found on the album apart from the core rock & roll standards include bells, trombone, flugelhorn, and trumpet.  There is truly a cornucopia of sounds to be found on “Floating World.”

 

Perhaps the first thing one might notice the first couple times through the album is the exceptional harmonizing between members.  The band almost sounds like a choir at times, and the group-sung portions on “Floating World” are among the most fun and memorable on the album.  Furthermore, certain instrumental passages such as the oompa-band sound on “Hanasakajijii two: Floating World” seem to purposefully clash with the richness of the sung verses to create a musical dichotomy that works masterfully. 

 

The members of Anathallo are Christians, and while the lyrics are clearly influenced by their faith, they are subtle and layered in such a way that one could spend hours trying to figure out the deeper meanings.  A sample: “I hid myself underneath my father / With the robes of a son / In morning when words rose up / Like the echo of a stone axe / Some demon in me crawled out and ran away.”  Clearly this abstract and metaphorical line is dealing with the spiritual, but it is up to the listener to determine the implications. “Floating World” is in part a concept album based on a Japanese folk tale involving buried coins and a supernatural dog, and the lyrics directly reference the story.  Thankfully, the band has included the full tale in the intricate and delicately designed lyric booklet to help the listener make sense of the lyrics relating to the story.

 

Music listeners who demand standard song-structures and predictable themes might want to stay away from “Floating World.”  This is the first great album of 2006 and a bold artistic statement from a band on the rise.  I am reminded of the famous line from the great poet John Keats: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”  “Floating World” is an album that contains both truth and beauty in bountiful amounts.  Listen to it carefully and you just may find something wonderful 

 

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