The top of the world has come, or no less than it has for Beams. The Toronto-based psych-folk band’s idea album Requiem for a Planet tells the story of a destroyed planet, on reflection. Recorded in a secluded barn nested within the Shawangunk mountains in New Paltz, NY, Requiem for a Planet evokes the deep-ache feeling of reminiscences being handed via generations, a set of oral teachings that works to catalogue all the sweetness that when grew from our long-destroyed dwelling.
The band’s fourth studio album opens with “Childlike Empress,” a track with haunting single chords that echo towards a vivid description of the destruction of the planet. Anna Mērnieks-Duffield sings the story passively, as if she knew there was nothing she may do to halt the unfolding carnage. The track evolves right into a spiraling cacophony, however Mērnieks-Duffield’s voice stays calm, guiding us on a serene path via the chaos. “Childlike Empress” is nihilism at its finest; accepting and with out panic.
“Starlight” shifts the tone towards the upbeat and easy, a whiplash-inducing counter to “Childlike Empress” that conjures Beams seated round a campfire, getting carried away with their story earlier than switching to a calmer tune. After this opening jolt, Requiem for a Planet blends seamlessly between every observe, making a compelling throughline. The album acts as a time capsule, immortalizing the great thing about Earth and the facility in her pure programs for these too younger to recollect what it was like.
Within the album’s second half, “A.W.I.L” explodes into concord and light-weight with Mērnieks-Duffield’s belt carrying that momentum into the ultimate stretch. “It is All Round You” follows with the identical push, harmonizing with the sooner chaos of “Childlike Empress.”
The ultimate observe on the album is “Intangible Holds,” which asks us to reconnect with our deep group connections, a name to attract upon these connections to protect what little of the planet that now we have. Each notice of Requiem for a Planet has been thoughtfully positioned to create a communal area for its personal storytelling. Beams has a robust understanding of the facility of empty area, utilizing lengthy, affected person breaths of silence — like the celebs in “Shadow of a Shadow,” the vacancy between every sound holds a complete universe.
Requiem for a Planet is each a cautionary story to guard our planet and a promise that irrespective of the result, there will likely be tales left to inform.
