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I’ve been listening to the new Animal Hospital album, Memory, quite a bit lately. I originally was hesitant to even get the album. Most of the reviews were ambiguous at best and their main argument for the album was “OMG, U NEED THIS NOWZ!!!!!!” But after seeing that review on almost every music blog I read, I caved and got the album. When I first listened to Memory it didn’t feel like a traditional voyeuristic listening experience. With most albums, the emotional expression of the music is outside the scope of most of the audience. It’s only through repeated listening and personally owning onto lyrics and music we internalize the listening experience; where we come to a point of understanding with the artist.
With Memory the emotional connection is immediate, there is no interim where you make concessions to allow yourself to identify with the album. I don’t know if you actually ever necessarily identify with it as much as you experience it in a linear fashion along side the artist. Every moment and feeling is fleeting as soon as you are able to identify it. It leaves you reaching around for something to hold in an attempt to cement things to understand them. But understanding comes in one of two ways. Either through quite contemplation in which you analyse a given set of circumstances and reach a conclusion; or after experiencing something, looking back and coming upon the epiphany of the journey. For somethings you must step out of circumstance and look at the situation in a harsh analytical light to obtain the lesson. But for issues closer to the heart, many times, you must pull yourself across the rocky soil until you reach the soft creek’s edge. It’s only after you wash your wounds that you arrive at a moment of growth.
Our memories are marked, more often than not, by the forward motion associated with them. Bright vivid memories are few and tainted by projected emotions. But both hold equal weight on our present and future, which begs the question of which is more desirable? With Memory Animal Hospital allows us to consume a linear reality in whichever way we decide. The personal discovery of producing and consuming memories is sterilized allowing us to examine the uncontrollable consequences they have on our current progressing state.
