RandomBear

"You're alive, and you'll love again, even though it feels like the end."

It has been rainy recently, and so I have been filled with a deep feeling of melancholy. In times like these, the best medicine is to return to our creature comforts, which, for me, means listening to indie sleaze.

Despite this album turning 15 in 11 days, it is a rather new find for me. It's beautiful, 11 tracks coming in at a runtime of 36 minutes. The album is made up of dreamy, soothing instrumentals mostly consisting of lo-fi drumbeats, guitar, and pleasant vocals.

Heaven is Attached by a Slender Thread balances slower, mellower tracks like Everything Falls Apart and Weathering (The News) with dancier, upbeat tracks like Plans and Credible Threats. The music allows itself to be playful but is by no means insubstantial, with lyrics detailing love, dreams, and the relentless changing of life. The album encourages you to move, in some way. Dance, walk, skip, run until your lungs gasp for air. Just move.

My personal favorite tracks are Sunlight, An Old Photo of Your New Lover, and Ticking Heart.

Sunlight is the first song off the album and is certainly a strong start. A fade into the song is the first thing we hear, before leading into a higher tempo beat. The lyrics beg for a change in life, a desperate call for a chance for the better. Perhaps a plea for a better life, without knowledge of what that entails. Moving forward, and all that it demands.

This song is followed by An Old Photo of Your New Lover, a song that blends beautifully into its predecessor but sounds just as nice on its own. The lyrics are moody, wistful—detailing the realization that in all relationships, there is a time before you and a time after you. The oft-startling realization that the people in your life are only there out of happenstance, and their lives only weave with yours where you allow them to.

Ticking Heart is, in my thoughts, the optimist’s response to the album. It’s comforting, reassuring the listener that this is not the end. Life will continue despite any heartbreak one feels in the moment, if you just allow yourself to heal and grow and live on. Paired with the album’s final song, Weathering (The News), the message of the album is clear. Life will hurt; you will be hurt—but it will go on. So, stay here, at least for a while.

Best enjoyed with headphones and a cup of (mint) tea.

Further recommendations:

The Sophtware Slump - Grandaddy xx – The xx Give Up – The Postal Service Noble Beast – Andrew Bird It's a Corporate World - JR JR

Listen to Heaven is Attached by a Slender Thread here: