By: Chad Murray
T E Morris | website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp | soundcloud |
Released on June 24, 2016 via Olynka Records
To echo the sentiment of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor “this is the year where hope fails you”. The year when Bowie, Lemmy, Prince, Harper Lee, Muhammed Ali, Gary Shandling and Alan Rickman all tragically died. This is the year of massacres born from hatred spanning across the world from Orlando to Istanbul sprouted from further misunderstanding, anger and fear to erupt into a manifestation of our own insecurity attacking everyone to escape the target on our backs. The year when UKIP resurrected nazi propaganda, the Torys asked the EU for a divorce and an MP was assassinated by yet another easily manipulated fodder of this ceaseless war between greed and justice. This whole year is just one long obituary and T.E. Morris’ solo swansong is possibly the most fitting requiem to a period of ceaseless disillusionment and despair. It’s a sad and beautiful world. We’re running out of the EU to “take back control” and running out of options now the people in charge have lost control of the idiotic general populous who inconsiderately back themselves into a corner until the whole country begins to suffocate in a web of prevailing cowardice. Fear, insecurity and misunderstanding: hatred and despair in little England.
A delicate foxtrot of piano falling like snowflakes; glistening vulnerability whimpering a mesmerising melody like watching a vulture preparing to pounce. A one-way tour through the joys of sorrow in a sad and beautiful world. ‘Deck The Rays’ becomes reminiscent of living life behind a sheet of glass or ice watching a distant impression of the sunset while bittersweetly smßirking at a life that could’ve been. An incredibly fitting tone for a farewell album by one of the most talented songwriters in independent music today. It will choose you, like it chose me. An imposing, ethereal slither, a metallic resonant croon. Morris sings like the ghost at the feast watching the world with a piercing sense of distance. The song carries an inherent fury in its sadness; a primeval squall of disillusionment, disassociation and dissatisfaction. The closing piano roars the opener to sleep like falling forks of lightning crashing outside a bedroom window. The raw emotion exhibited in the opening track perfectly encompasses the storm of humanity conveyed throughout the album and sets an astonishing standard for the rest of Newfoundland.
‘Never Let Me Go’ initially reminds me of something from Siskiyou’s excellent sophomore album Keep Away The Dead and it quickly establishes itself as an exceptionally well-written ballad. A shimmering guitar line coalesces playfully with the fast plucking of a banjo but, what really sets the track at a much higher standard is the lyrical genius on display. Rarely, does a song have so many brilliant lines of pros that flow together so beautifully as genuine fucking poetry, few lyricists have ever written a sentence as poignantly self-reflexive and arresting as this: “I was an afterthought drifting out to sea”. Phrases that coalesce and unfold the rhythm and narrative of the track telling the story to the listener as it feels to the songwriter: “way down, deeper and deeper, there are echoes of the sound, never let me go, I couldn’t have been more for you”. At times Morris seems to contain in his songs the combined wisdom and sadness of us all. I do have to say though, if ignorance is bliss then what the fuck is Tom Morris? Possibly the most captivating lyricist since Ian Curtis, one of the most versatile songwriters in independent music. Forget all the politics and the bullshit, the loss of Tom’s solo output might well be the biggest loss Britain sees this year, although I’m sure the billions of pounds and social perspective lost in Brexit could well match up in time.
A stunningly well-produced piano staggers into the album carrying in the desperate croon of Morris’ vocal like a coffin atop burdened young men at a funeral. ‘The Sea of Tranquility’’s morose tone is reminiscent of staring at the ocean from a high place, contemplating the dive down, it’s initially a bleak thought but, then more sinister notions start to manifest themselves the thrill of the fall, the intoxicating kiss of danger. “Waves upon waves, blues upon greens, all I can see is stars on the sea of tranquility”. Fury, dizzy reckless, self-destructive fury, this is punishment, this is anger. Contemplating the menace of everyday life, swept away in depression and dissatisfaction, disillusionment and disassociation. A stunning, angelic anger subdued in a crushing realisation of both hope and hopelessness; the desire for something better and the acceptance of the ideal world as a pipe dream in the veritable sewer of human nature. Although, it’s better to be a pig in shit than a walking ham; it’s all about perspective and this introspective track is a perfect example of the melting pot of human cerebral activity that bursts through the clouds in such bleak days.
The contemplative odyssey down the sea of tranquility is bridged into the wilderness via an ambient orchestral soundscape entitled ‘Further’ which ties the two tracks together nicely and drops the listener from one of plain of thought to another effortlessly.
‘A Year In The Wilderness’ adds a surprising spring into the album’s step with a fairly up-beat piano (well, in terms of Tom Morris’ work), it has a nice polished sound with a menacing folk edge that for some reason makes me think of Downtown Abbey or some other very British drama. ‘A Year In The Wilderness’ is a fairly apt description of 2016; seems all is lost at times. Everything seems to be spiraling out of control and everyone seems to be at odds, I can’t help but feel as though this is the perfect album to listen to at this moment in time “I’ve been carrying your shadow; I’ve been offering a truce, I can feel your heels digging in, do you feel like you’re at home?”
Trickling vines of guitar sprawl wearily down into the album. ‘How Far Would You Go To Disappear?’. Pianos delicately amble along like water droplets falling from leaves adding an ambient serenity. Tom croons in between the notes with meditative melodies gliding introspectively across the arrangement. The result is a peaceful and picturesque escape from the weight of some of the album’s more poignant tracks.
The album undertakes a bolder progression in ‘The Mountain’. The track captures an almost triumphant atmosphere somewhat implied in the title through a sharp rhythmic acoustic guitar confrontation and a climax built on a seismic layering of strings and keys erupting at into a crescendo. A delightful music box quaintly bridges the gap between its disappearance and the ‘Lethe’ – in what can only be described as an INTERMISSION FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR SWOLLEN BRAIN
The Waves Of Newfoundland are some of the most beautifully haunting and awe-inspiring shores I’ve ever witnessed. ‘Lethe’ whimpers a captivatingly sorrowful guitar line to introduce the listener to Newfoundland. Picture an island in your mind made to satisfy your every need. A tranquil bed of sand as the foundation. Slow, magnificent waves dancing across the bay; strings of matter encapsulating every psychological understanding of human existence reducing them down to a simple crashing wave. A ripple through time in a universe that sees humanity as only having lived the length of a breath. “Trials of love and lost abandon, I didn’t come here to be forgiven. I grew a vein outwards and around you and carried your shadow for years and years“. A last longing look then push back into vacuum and leave lasting sparks behind fading lines. Everything washed away in a song sung by quasars and comets, broken stars and decaying planets, the universe is expanding, progress will come after a regression as everything is bookended by nothing. The hopeless dirge of today will find a song of understanding tomorrow and every mistake and tragedy of this moment will find wisdom in the future.
“Man had been liberated from his body and with it he had been liberated from all the bloody animal experiences that went with it; love was unknown”. This interesting sample perfectly carries the album down its assured path into what seemingly acts as the ultimate act in a sort of undetermined Waves of Newfoundland: ‘Trials’. The track marries samples pondering theological ideas with a melancholic piano taking the album’s existential spirit into a ontological search for the meaning of life and the existence of divinity in otherwise nihilistic actuality.
An ear curdling set of sounds bursts the mixed to bits in the last interval in the album, breaking the listener down nicely for the final track. ‘Last Words’ washes the album away like an ocean waves reclaiming a ship in slow motion, taking all glory and sorrow with it in fluttering memories of joy and regret. A beautifully somber swan song of an eternal struggle perpetuated through a veil of hope dizzied by weariness and exhaustion. A befitting climax for a harrowing and sublime opus.
“I don’t want to hear the silence
And I can’t wait to start again
Trying not to break away
Trying not to break away”.
The world we live in is a strangely dark and dichotomously wonderful place; the more I see, the less I like. But, all it takes is to see the face of someone I love and for a while I forget that we live in deeply unsettling times, that human beings form groups and kill each other over the fear that someone else might do the same to them. I forget that people lie, cheat, murder, rape, torture and go to war. I forget discrimination and bigotry and divisions and I remember that life is beautiful and sometimes even when things are at their worst; a simple smile and a glimmer of hope can be more powerful than the weight of existence. And I remember that the potential to change is everything and whilst today the world is at a loss, this is a mere period of mourning, there is potential for a new found land; a bright tomorrow… even for T E Morris.
Newfoundland is out now, buy it immediately here: https://olynkarecords.bandcamp.com/album/newfoundland-and-of-that-second-kingdom-will-i-sing – If it is not THE album of the year it is certainly the album that best embodies it.
