I think it's pretty safe to say that I have finally fallen out of love with post-rock. That's not to say that I don't like or enjoy post-rock and I am definitely not about to become one of those "post-rock is dead" idiots. Instead, it's more of a change in my internal state and desires that means that I no longer actively burn for post-rock; I don't go looking for it, beyond a few names that I know I will always enjoy, and even when I really enjoy a post-rock album, it doesn't hold the same space in my rotation. That doesn't mean that post-rock is bad now, for some reason. It just means that the emotional palette that the genre is aiming at is no longer resonating with me. This is more true as the post-rock is more "classic", built not just with the tried and true musical structure of the genre (AKA build and release or "crescendo core") but also with the same classic emotional make up of the genre (AKA melancholy and introspection).
Which is why I approached the new We Lost the Sea album with some trepidation. Departure Songs is one of my all time favorite albums, inside and outside of post-rock. And what's more, Triumph & Disaster which followed it did exactly what I wanted it to do, which is not follow in Departure Songs' steps. Instead, it presented a heavier, more immediate version of We Lost the Sea, still expansive post-rock but also different. So, what exactly did I want from A Single Flower before I listened to it? I honestly don't know; maybe I should have written it down before listening to it and having my impression overridden by the experience. Regardless of what I wanted though, it's definitely not what I expected.
A Single Flower is even more classically post-rock than Departure Songs was. It's made up of long, build-up heavy tracks which follow the classic structures and themes of post-rock. "If They Had Hearts", which opens the album, spends little time to introduce you to this concept. The first four minutes of it are build up, whereas the mark between four minutes with the track really exploding into action around the five minutes mark. When it does, it's the sort of cathartic climax that relies on a wall of sound with details etched out in the background, lead guitars scoring the feedback with ideas and repetitions. But then, the track just disappears; you're left with very gentle, very quiet guitar lines, the kind of musical open spaces that We Lost the Sea have always excelled at. But this is wider, more introspective, and more contemplative than they've ever gone before, again reaching deeper into post-rock's classic foundations for the album's sound.
There are moments like this throughout the album but a lot of it is a very melancholic, and very jubilant, at the catharsis, mix of post-rock sounds. In fact, all throughout my listens, one name echoed brightly than any other in my head: Old Solar. This is a high compliment coming from me, as they are one of my all time favorite post-rock bands. We Lost the Sea are tapping into the same kind of post-rock as Old Solar have for the last few years: big, dark, and then very loud, and very bright at the outset. And you know what? It works. From any other band, I wouldn't really have the patience for this any more; as I mentioned above, my appetite for this kind of music has been whetted over years of listening to.
But damn it, We Lost the Sea are so good at it! The build-ups are intricate and complex, the crescendos arresting and heart-wrenching in the best of ways. Everything glimmers. Everything feels like We Lost the Sea give a shit. They are not just relying on these tropes because "it's how post-rock is done". They are not churning out an iteration from a template. Listen around minute eleven on the last track, "Blood Will Have Blood", and tell me you don't hear the desperate passion in those returning guitar chords and the mellower section that follows it. A Single Flower is brimming with intent, with a band who chose to dive deep and bring forth what they truly feel is necessary to their sound. The end result is an album that pierces even through this old soul's jaded and callous approach to the "established" post-rock sound and sets my heart a-flutter. Even if you think you're "over" this kind of music, give this one a try. It's cut from a different cloth.
A Single Flower releases July 4th, and you can head on over to the band's Bandcamp to pre-order it it.