Being overly dramatic is in style. Not in the LiveJournal, I-just-lost-my-girlfriend, and need-to-write-some-clichéd-poetry kind of way. But rather in an epic, almost cinematic sense. For nearly five years now, The Arcade Fire have been churning out countless songs with resounding, minor-chord strings and glockenspiel to boot to overwhelming critical praise, while groups like The Fiery Furnaces pitter along with schizophrenic bombasts of guitars and sugar-high vocals. It is in this category that now-duo Pattern is Movement’s latest release All Together lies.
From the album’s opener “Bird,” it’s obvious Pattern is Movement are looking to fit into this recent trend of glossy melodies and joyous instrumentation. The track begins with metronome-precise tattering before lead singer Andrew Thiboldeaux repeats (hitting notes that few men besides Freddy Mercury would be able to match), “I will never all together.” The random unintelligible lines are held aloft only by the non-stop pace of the track. While this formula is enjoyable at first, it gets to be exhausting as the disc continues.
Fortunately, All Together is accented by such composed pieces as “Sound of Your Voice.” Though the backing horns are jarring for a time, there’s a logical progression that much of the song follows, making it an easier listen for anyone who can’t stand the constant bombardment of noise from the rest of the disc. Thiboldeaux’s repeated croons of “Oh I just like the sound of your voice” are accessible and humanizing in a record of oft-incomprehensible, rapid-fire vocals. But when the track ends, you’re immediately thrown back into the tumultuous waters of “Jenny Ono” and its seemingly 12-beat measures.
What Pattern is Movement’s All Together ultimately boils down to is whether or not you can tolerate and appreciate their frequently inaccessible songs, and have the patience to sift through the album, looking for its truly beautiful aspects. Because, though they’re certainly there, it takes time to find them. But what works against Pattern is Movement is the way in which this album is constructed. To present high intensity and dramatics for the span of an entire disc is trying, to say the least. And it seems nearly impossible that they’ll be able to do it this well and this concise again.
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