And So I Watch You From Afar – The Endless Shimmering

And So I Watch You From Afar’s fifth album, The Endless Shimmering, exemplifies the phenomenal talent of the band, filled with precise, punishing breakdowns and rapid-fire, disorienting changes in tempo and mood. 

Three Triangles opens the album with incomprehensible watery, submerged vocals (the only ones on the album), joined by a rifle crack snare and then guitars screeching over the top, building towards a muscular breakdown complete with bewilderingly complex guitar riffs which sets the tone for the album. What follows is a series of stunning but essentially orthodox math rock set pieces where the more memorable moments are the lulls, the introspective calms in the eye of the storm which only add force to the soaring breakdowns that follow. A Slow Unfolding of Wings is a fine example of this, as is the orchestral outro to the album’s centrepiece, Dying Giants. 

The album's final act reveals the band’s pop sensibilities. The guitar melody on Mulally could be reimagined as a singalong by the right lyricist, while the marching drums and joyous hooks on I’ll Share a Life sound genetically engineered for sunny afternoons at Reading. ASIWYFA haven’t reinvented the wheel with this album, but it’s a worthy addition to an increasingly accomplished body of work. 

Listen to: A Slow Unfolding of Wings, I'll Share a Life, Chrysalism