I had never appreciated the story-telling power of an album until Gang of Youths’ Go Farther In Lightness. The album is an odyssey that deserves a listen-through with the shuffle off, and I don’t hesitate to say that it’s one of the most well-polished, conscious, and comforting records I’ve ever come across.
I’ll be the first to admit I'm extremely late to the bandwagon here. As Gang Of Youths’ second studio album, Go Father In Lightness received international praise and awards galore following its release in 2017, and David Le’aupepe, the band’s frontman, is one of the country's golden boys.
The album's 16 songs take you through a visceral wave of anxiety and depression, and thankfully out the other side with a beautiful sense of solidarity. The song order sums it up pretty well: we start with “Fear and Trembling” and end with “Say Yes To Life”. Le’aupepe has long been vocal about using his music to connect with people, especially about shared experiences of mental illness --- as he sings in The Heart is a Muscle: “I will not play this out discreetly; it is real and unashamed.” He once told Rolling Stone: “All people want in life is to feel they exist…I’ve been given a platform and I want people to feel seen.”
Listening through this record for the first time gave me such a surreal feeling of comfort – a music version of what you experience while reading when it feels “as if a hand has come out and taken yours” --- and its success just goes to show how many others have felt the same.
What really blows me away about Gang of Youths (always, and this album in particular) is the depth of their lyrics. Le’aupepe is clearly well-versed in existential philosophy – citing Camus and Heidegger in interviews, naming songs in honour of philosophical works. The opening track Fear and Trembling, for example, pays tribute to Kierkegaard’s novel of the same name, and serves as a bridge connecting the band’s debut album The Positions (2015) to this one. While The Positions focused heavily on Le’aupepe’s relentless wars with addiction and mental illness, we now find him quite literally seeking to “go farther in lightness." Fear and Trembling sets that tone.
I'll admit I'm not one for the band's heavier rock element, but if that's your thing you might enjoy one of the first few tracks until Keep Me In The Open, which changes pace in the form of a ballad. The song's tempo starts to build halfway but the climax is contained, plateauing instead as the singer repeats “I deserve better than this." I can see why some people might find this one a bit boring (especially compared to everything else the band has to offer) but I love the way the song musically captures the slow-brewing of repressed emotion, and overall it's a heartfelt confession about two perspectives in a relationship being unable to connect. Can't complain.
One of the most memorable elements of this album's music is the heavy use of strings. No matter how good electronic music becomes, I don't think any sound will ever be able to make up for the richness of a real orchestra of strings. Le’aupepe’s father was on opera singer who raised him on classical music, an influence which explains the orchestral arrangements through all of the songs and especially in its three instrumental tracks.
The first of the three, L’imaginaire, serves as a lullaby-style intro into Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane, a slow pulsing track whose chorus captures a theme of the album: “Do not let this thing you got go to waste / do not let your heart be dismayed / it’s here by some random disclosure of grace." This song pair has such a cosmic feel to it, and I especially love the bridge (at 5:00). The melody temporarily turns more melancholic as the singer breaks down in despair --- but, of course, he doesn't leave things there. We break back into a redemptive note of hope with one final chorus: “Get the fuck out of your head if it says / 'Stay cold and be deathly afraid' / Do not let your spirit wane."
Another beautiful song pair comes soon after, as the building violin strums of Le symbolique transform into the drums of Let Me Down Easy. The latter has become one of the band’s most famous tracks, and it’s easy to see why: it’s a laidback rock song with great lyrics. There’s a particularly great expression in the first verse --- “Since the world’s dark and often inhumane… we all decided the best way to fight it was drink wine, dance here and pray, and make love that lasts with a vengeance” --- and there are great bits of wry humour (“I’ve got solipsism baby and I’ve brought lemonade").
Midway through the record we get a masterpiece of a track, Achilles Come Down, which again shows off Leaupepe's talent for string compositions. The energy of the entire song is driven by the anxious cello strumming underpinning it all. But what makes this one all-the-more remarkable is the play on narration: at times, Le’aupepe is attempting to talk Achilles off a ledge; at others, he is Achilles, convincing himself to jump. This dynamic culminates in the fifth verse with the two voices intertwining each other --- it's honestly a marvel to listen to. And for a final touch, the bits of French speaking you hear are from Camus’s The Myth Of Sisyphus, the philosopher’s essay on suicide (fitting). Again, some beautiful thematic lines of the album come from this song: “Engage with the pain as a motive / See life as a worthy opponent."
Persevere, the track just after, provides some calm relief sonically but delves into whole new perspective of sadness through its story, one of Le’aupepe’s best friends who lost a child: "As I’m staring at your folks, the sweetest people I know, I get a glimpse of what it is to be strong / just holding hands and sobbing with sunglasses on." (That same friend plays piano on this track and most of the record.) But even with a tragedy as the focal point of the song, it still manages to sound uplifting --- a beautiful ode to keeping faith in spite of everything.
This hope-driven energy continues with The Heart Is A Muscle, one of my favourites of the album purely for its lyrics --- the kind that make you feel overflowing with gratitude. (And yes, also the kind that merit that sort of cheesiness.) The song serves as Le'aupepe's pledge --- “I will not hurt like this forever / I wanna be loved / I wanna be whole again" --- and I have to give mention to the one lyric that always makes me smile: "--- so tuck my hair behind my ears and touch my soul again." Spectacular. The chorus has all of the instruments blare out in a happy cacophony --- and without ruining it any more by over-describing, I'll just promise that this one will get your blood pumping.
The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows, one of the last pinnacles of the album, undoubtedly will too. The instruments are made to match the calm sincerity of the verses and the heart-pounding climaxes of the chorus --- not to mention the best lyrics of the album come from this song (and as we've seen, the bar has already been set HIGH). Le’aupepe sings with complete openness about “grieving the loss of myself with frightening malaise," and wanting to “see light in myself that I see inside everyone else I know." It’s so powerful the way the song explodes into life as he belts --- “Just stand in the darkness and laugh with your heel on its throat," and what makes it all so brilliant is how it shows the entire spectrum of the wave: the darkest parts of depression and the hope-filled clarity on the other side.
The album finishes with Our Time Is Short and Say Yes To Life – titles which, when read together, perfectly sum up the band’s maxim.
Our Time Is Short is the most acoustic and folksy song of the collection, with a line in its second verse that always hits home: “It’s weird and unnerving, forsaking my old life now / ‘cause this is a burden I can’t seem to do without." It captures the absurdly addictive side of depression.
Finally, we come to easily the best album closer I've ever heard. Listened to out of context, Say Yes To Life would just come off as chaotic, but as the bookend of the album’s narrative it could not be more perfect. It’s both a thrilling sermon and a stand of solidarity, as Le’aupepe sings: “If I could reach out through the screen and give you something to believe in, I would, but I’m with you in amongst the confusion." The build-up of the song feels like it’s carrying the weight of the entire album with it. Three minutes in, the suspense roars towards the final climax: Le’aupepe’s howling through warrior vocals --- “Say yes to grace, say no to spite. Say yes to this, say yes to you, say yes to me, say yes to love! Say yes to life!” The music blasts in all directions, brimming over with life.
Altogether, this album is a reflection of human experience that will leave you feeling galvanized.
Happy listening!
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