Search - Even in Blackouts :: Zeitgeist's Echo

Takes things to another level entirely . . .

Lanz Nomad | Washington, DC | 06/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Zeitgeist's Echo" is weird. The title is weird. The arrangements are weird. The lyrics go way beyond weird. But the sheer weirdness is what makes the record so compelling. It strikes the listener as something more than 17 tracks on a disc; the coveted concept that exists as something more than the sum of its parts (failed attempts at which sprawl across the recycled history of recorded music). As a child, I dreamt of sprawling, overgrown, seductive gardens of mystery and untold treasures that would gift unto me the novelty of enchantment. As an adult, albums like "Zeitgeist's Echo" provide the mental equivalent. True magic lives in these songs, beckoning the listener into an enchanted and strangely different world. The journey, passed the ebullient doo-wap rythyms of "One Fine Day", is at many points effervescent, even ecstatic. Yet through other stretches, say the instrumental undulations of "Schadenfraude", the mood is fiercely reflective, embittered and piqued. A little deeper down the path, "The Writer" evokes fantastical puzzlement and a touch of that lost intrigue of secret gardens. The proceedings take a very strange turn to the obscure with the three-part "Curtain" suite, before the blistering visceral, hauntingly emotional "Heaven" brings a disturbing and abrupt close to this strange yet magical trip. The concepts broached therein are profoundly uncomfortable, yet this brilliantly meaningful song is impossible to turn away from, absolutely impossible to ignore as it gnaws away at the most personal of beliefs. And therein lies the genius of "Zeitgeist's Echo". Musically and conceptually, it covers broad swathes of exotic terrain and succeeds mightily in transporting those who listen to somewhere beyond the nether regions of the astral plain. This has perhaps been done plenty of times before, but "Zeitgeist's Echo" goes beyond. For, a truly meaningful journey forces the traveller to examine the nature of who they are. I don't believe it's an exaggeration to say that this album, and its closer "Heaven" in particular, achieves this, bringing uninvited introspection upon the listener in a manner that is, amongst recorded music, truly rare. This gem will carry you somewhere else for 40 or so minutes, but will leave a much more permanent mark upon your soul. And that is why, I guess, I said at the outset that it was so weird."