Holy Sons
Criminal's Return
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Label: Important Records
Emil Amos's one man project, Holy Sons, is incredibly productive. Following the striking Drifter's Sympathy of earlier this year, his new Criminal's Return is not quite a spiritual sequel, so much as a thematic successor. The looming, paranoid production and unhinged spoken-word samples remain the same, as do the long instrumental stretches of distorted guitars and almost inaudible bass. It's nearly as affecting a record as Drifter's Sympathy, and certainly as memorable.
The record opens with a strange, hissing wind- it could be through trees or grass or the sea, only to be overtaken by the quiet, minimalist keyboards and wandering guitar of "From Now On." An immense organ line appears after the chorus- "Like every night is a wasted chance to change/ And every dawn, from now on-" and the song gains a sort of sad majesty, both melancholy and angry. One of the highlights of the album, "I'm Surrounded," utilizes the same twisted soundtrack samples from Drifter's Sympathy to the same eerie effect, until the repetitive bass and multi-tracked vocals create a dreamlike trance. Amos interrupts himself from multiple directions, all anchored by the insistent refrain "Everybody said/ Everybody said/ It's unattainable."
"Fermenting Mind" nearly repeats the trick, this time with guitars and programmed drums, and is saved from redundancy by spoken word interludes like "Time's just something the government made to control our minds. It doesn't exist." Holy Sons' albums are best listened to as complete, organic pieces, in which the small intricacies of the sound can be best appreciated; breaking the record up into pieces loses the shared depths of the individual songs. That said, the title track, divided into two parts, is jointly the weakest of the album, not quite as imposing, dark or complex as the rest. On the other hand, "Cruel + Unusual" is the closest thing Amos may have done yet to a pop song (at least under the Holy Sons moniker). Riding a nearly country-ish lope reminiscent of Isaac Brock in his gentler moments, sentiments like "But his boredom is no higher/ And I'm bored of his desires" sound prettier than they should.
Criminal's Return is a worthy successor to Drifter's Sympathy and a definite indication that quick production does not necessitate a decline in quality. If anything, I end up wanting Holy Sons to work faster and produce more.
by Nathan Kamal
