‘Cause once upon a time, it was you I adored, I could smile….’ ‘You look different.’
‘Holding you. Good at being alone. Loving you. Good at being alone. Kissing you. Tell me how can you. Tell me I belong. It’s not why I trust you.
The cover intrigued me. So I downloaded it. And then didn’t listen to it more than once. Then one night, talking music, a guy turns to me and says ‘Have you heard the Burial album? You know, Untrue. Listen to it while you’re walking cold streets in the dark.’ Another time, different city. A 4.30am train home with a friend who only ever listens to jungle, drum’n'bass and dubstep. I’ve now listened to it a few times and decide to test it out on her. ‘Here listen to this. You might like it.’ The headphones are in place and her eyes glaze over. There’s no more talking coming from that corner tonight. Not even as we leave the station to walk through Hungarian cold do the headphones get removed. Not until we reach the door. And then ‘yeah, I love it.’
For me, these are the best recommendations of music. The immediate impact of music upon someone else. The initial response. And so I began to listen to it more deeply, letting it wash over me.
This is difficult to write as a review. I’m not an afficionado of dubstep, of dance music in general. I’m a novice. To others, it has soul whilst I like to dance to it in a club but to walk around listening to the beats of dnb or jungle seems purposeless. But Burial is different. (I have a feeling this is going to change, though).
It’s slow. It washes over you. The vocals feel like they’ve been sent through thousands of effects until they’re coming at you from behind you, around you, and you’re not sure if you’re hearing a man or a woman anymore. Underneath the two step beat, pulses of sound push through ebbing left and right then fading away as they emerge to be replaced by the ebb of something else. Riding home tonight, eyes closed, the rushing of the train tunnel seeped into the music like it was supposed to be there.
I can’t decide exactly why I like this album. And I don’t think I have the vocabulary to articulate it if I did. It gets under your skin until you find yourself singing the little melodies while you work. It’s sad, it’s beautiful and at times, achingly so.
Great review! It really sat well with me. The album truly does “wash over you”.
Has helped me change many of my friends ideas of what they thought ‘dubstep’ was all about.
Props to ya!
Thanks! I wasn’t sure how to write this one. Dubstep is something I’m completely new to. I wasn’t sure how to word anything or even whether I was using the right words. I think I’ll have to work on my friends before any of them start listening to dubstep… but maybe, just maybe, some of them will get there.