I'm thinking about what I need from music. I know I like music, that's the foundation. I know that my life is better when I'm listening to music than when I'm not listening to music. I feel calmer. But do I need music to feel calm? Sometimes I think I do, and sometimes I think that I'm just pretending. That music is just fun, and then calm has to come from within. I was cut off a couple times by the same fucking prick today on my drive to Fern Rock, and I managed to find calm, eventually, there in the car, some inner peace in taking the loss and letting it go, and music was definitely playing in the car when that happened, but I don't even remember what, and that was only like two hours ago. So I'm thinking the music didn't really matter much in that scenario. I didn't find peace and calm from the music. It was just on the car stereo while I did the work myself.
I don't think it's the music. Maybe it's... the appreciation of music as art, like the act of the appreciation itself, that causes the calm. Akin to finding peace and solace while sitting in front of a painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The act of interpreting the art is the thing that brings wonder and joy and that is the thing that acts as a shield against all incoming worries and anxieties. But if we're making that the hypothesis here, then we can rule out the idea of music itself being "calming." What I'm saying is that I am much more at peace listening to some Midwest emo that's fucking my shit up, versus some boring-ass classical music.
Woah woah woah woah hold up now, no, am I saying that In a Time Lapse is boring-ass classical music? Well... I mean, yes and no. No in that there are concrete moments throughout the life of this album that are certifiably unboring. There is build-up and there is catharsis. There is momentum and there are climaxes. There are moments that feel alive, in a sense. There are moments that make you feel like you have something to grab ahold of, and thus, in grabbing ahold, you can do what we usually do with art, which is: interpret, and find calm.
But yes in that I can't really pull all that much from those moments beyond "this seems like it's supposed to be exciting." See, there's a fucking reason that this kind of music is typically relegated to movie and TV soundtracks presently. It's because it can more successfully act as supplementary music, the ingredient that makes a particular episode or scene or moment pop. I spent a lot of my week imagining that the music on In a Time Lapse was soundtracking a particularly harrowing episode of The Leftovers. Fuck, dude, I loved that show. And that soundtrack was so memorable. It sounded a lot like this (plus Justin Theroux doing Simon & Garfunkel karaoke). But when I talk about "the art" of The Leftovers, I'm not just talking about the soundtrack. That's one piece of it. And it doesn't make sense to me to separate that one piece and try to experience it by itself.
I don't even think it's a stretch to claim that this is soundtrack music, because that's Ludovico Einaudi's day job. He's making soundtracks. That shit is going to bleed into his studio albums. This is what he's good at. I don't blame him for making more music even though some of it's not even attached to a film. That's his right. And clearly some people have connected with it, deeply. I tried my best, and I can appreciate it for what it is, but generally speaking, I would pretty much prefer literally any other genre of music over this.
I went back and revisited by album review for Valtari from last summer, because that was a review I recall speaking to soundtracks and what they could mean in my life re: art and wonder. (I don't think it's coincidental that Gloria's hand is in both of these album picks, nor do I think it's coincidental that I'm leaning on the same idea in order to try to find some value in these works of art, instead of just being a prick about it and saying I fucking hated it.) I think that "this sucks because my life is boring" is a good take, still, even though I've taken strides in attempting to make this life as exciting as possible under the circumstances. It's possible that I don't like In a Time Lapse because I am boring as fuck and only boring people are gonna hate this shit. That's probably the safest way to express my opinion, especially opinion in the negative—it's all my fault.
I don't need this music, because it's beautiful music and really gives you a good sense of what it's trying to do and has hills and valleys and makes great efforts to keep you engaged, but I'm just not getting anything deeper out of this. Beauty sometimes doesn't have depth. I need depth. If the only depth I can find is within myself, then that means the music is a generic conduit at best, and worthless at worst. If the only takeaway is that I found meaning within myself, then what the fuck is the music even here for. For what, to put on in the fucking background? To listen to as I drive home and think about how shitty of a day I just had and how behind I am on everything and how I just wanna drive this fucking car into the Tookany Creek? I can achieve all that without Ludovico Einauldi, thank you. Put it on in the background, I don't care.
do you really want to drive into a creek? are you feeling that bad? you being serious?
nah, that's called hyperbole
hyperbole can still be scary
i mean i had a rough couple days but i don't think that's abnormal
i'm just making sure you're okay
i'm fine. i'm calm.
but not because of the music
exactly
even though the music was playing
right
but i don't understand how this is a criticism of the album, like if you're trying to say that there isn't any music that makes a difference as to how calm or uncalm you feel in any given moment, then why is in a time lapse under the gun here, why wouldn't you say that for your favorite albums too
no no i'm not saying they are completely disconnected, i'm saying that i need something different than this in order to find it interesting and spend time interpreting the art that i perceive as interesting, and that interpretation of said art is the thing that affects my mood in positive ways
then why not spend more time interpreting in a time lapse, wouldn't that help, by your own admission
what i'm saying is that i don't perceive there to be anything worth being interested in on this album, it's pretty simple and its objectives are made plain and i just don't feel like there is a lot of depth here in the subject matter itself
which is probably your fault, not knowing the nuances of the multitude of sounds that make up a classical album
sure, i'm not denying that, but i'm saying that if i don't have the experience or skills to interpret classical music in that way, then all i'm left with is doing a "what does this mean to me" and I can do that with fucking anything. i can look at a fucking curl of cat shit in a litterbox and write 1000 words about what this means to me, and that doesn't mean there's any fucking artistic fucking value in that goddamn cat shit
and you're saying that writing 1000 words about cat shit wouldn't bring you joy
ehhhhh, okay, you got me there. i would find joy in that exercise. actually, would that have been a better review here?
i think it would have been just as bad
yeah, maybe
GRADE: 2 pukes out of 5
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