Receiving End of Sirens - Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi (12 tracks) +Album Reviews

ABSOLUTELY COMPELLING

Anthony R. Pepe | Lancaster, PA United States | 08/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the sophomore album from The Receiving End of Sirens, and it is one of the best albums I've heard in a while. Like Cave In, these guys know how to perfectly balance intensity and ambience, and also incorporate outer space themes into the music. Musically, much of this album is inspired by Johannes Kepler's work on the laws of planetary motion - the opening lead on "Saturnus" is their vision of what the orbits of Saturn's rings would sound like, while two of the more ambient tracks, "A Realization of the Ear" and "Music of the Sphere," continue on the space theme. These guys have improved vocally as well via addition by subtraction: after the departure of vocalist/guitarist Casey prior to recording the album, the band now has only 2 vocalists - bassist Bredan and guitarist Alex - rather than 3, resulting in much more clarity in the vocals. They continue their use of literary allusions on this album as well, with much of the lyrics to several songs inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis (his religious works, not the Chronicles of Narnia). There are several thematic layers to the album, from the sound of planetary motion, to the relationships between earth and mankind, father and son, and more. These guys write some great music, and I hope they stick around for a long time and continue carrying the space-rock banner.

For those who are interested, check out www.theearthsingsmifami.com/behindtherecord - there is a 30 second sound clip of each song on the album, along with a little blurb by each band member explaining how they wrote each of the songs."

Another album...Another landmark achievement

Sean M. Chandler | Kentucky, USA | 08/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let's dispense with the formalities. I was a little worried when I heard Casey had left TREOS, especially after hearing his work with the Dear Hunter. He has an exceptional ear for music and a real knack for composition that is unrivaled in this line of work. And, with regard to "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi", I would have to say that "Between the Heart & the Synapse" will probably still be more likely to dominate my car's stereo a year or two from now than this effort, but that comes as a small boast when both records may be the ONLY two albums I'm playing a year from now. Both are that good.

And Casey's absence is felt on "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi" from time to time...but of course there are also numerous moments where you'll forget he ever existed.

TREOS' second effort is one of the most experimental albums to hit the Warped Tour scene...maybe ever, revolving around a concept put forward in a book by Johannes Kepler, pertaining to the tonal theory of Mars, Venus, and Earth--that these three heavenly bodies create a musical tone as they move about one another, as if to sing "mi fa mi" (i.e.do re mi fa so la ti do)--and Kepler proposed that this is as if to denote "misery famine misery". I haven't read the book (yet) so that's about where my knowledge of the idea runs out, by hey, that's why Kepler published a book, so read up. Now, the fact that TREOS sought to take this concept and develop an album around it, should tell you what you're dealing with here: A band steeped in genius, striving for the insane, and (thankfully, successfully) generating beauty from the fold.

I read a good analysis of the songs online and I might as well quote it here because it does a dynamic job of briefly running through the themes:

"Kepler's misery referred to emptiness, and TREOS take up that theme on the opening "Swallow People Whole," further incorporating it into "Obliette (Disappear)" and "Smoke and Mirrors." Kepler's famine, meanwhile, referred not to starvation, but a desire for things. And indeed desire is the subject of "The Crop and the Pest," while lust and craving drive "Saturnus." "The Salesman, the Husband, the Lover" sets the stage for the album's other concept, with its web of disintegrating relationships woven through the set, and is based on a story written by Brendan Brown. This theme reaches a nadir on "The Heir of Empty Breath" as the band pleads to be taken away from the emotional wreckage, with the album closing with the haunting "Pale Blue Dot" (a reference to a Voyager photograph of the Earth) and its repeated refrain, "There's no place like home." (Jo-Ann Green)

My favorite songs on the album are "Swallow People Whole", "The Crop and the Pest", "A Realization of the Ear" (gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous), "Stay Small", and "Heir of Empty Breath", but the whole album is wonderful even though a few of the songs aren't very dynamic and the album could have used a little more musical diversity at times, but who can complain. I'm only comparing this album to their first one. It's still heads above the competition.

All in all, if you're expecting new songs to instantly rock out to, stick to your guns with "The Rival Cycle", "The Evidence", "Broadcast Quality", etc., but you should still definitely check out "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi" because there's still a ton of songs that will become stuck in your head within the week, plenty of beautiful harmonizing and arrangements to tingle your spine, and enough inventive creativity and insightfulness to make you believe there just might be hope for the world."

"How will I find my way out of this?"

The Expanse | Atlanta, GA | 09/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is no way that Mi Fa Mi will receive the same press that the new NIN, Year Zero, has received, but it merits it in every way. Though the focal points are pretty far apart, these two records, in my opinion, are the most relevant records to the state of humanity that I've heard in a long time. With the focus and intensity of this sophomore effort, they have trumped their first record hands down, and those who have heard BTHATS hopefully know that I do not say this flippantly.

TREOS were indeed attempting a universal theme when they tackled a subject like the tonality of our spinning planet. Not only did they achieve that, but they hit such a personal nerve that its difficult to listen without your own heart breaking over the brokenness of the world, and perhaps, your own brokenness as well. You feel the paralysis and helplessness of the central character struggling to come to grips with the toll the earth takes on everything within and everyone surrounding.

The music provides an unbelievably well formed landscape for the dark theme. I was a bit surprised at how "Swallow People Whole" starts the album; it's not a rocker as the name suggests, but it's as if the earth is being handspun into motion by the slow mechanical drums and the deliberate guitar foundations toward the end. It is seductive yet more subtle than the equally engaging "The Crop and the Pest," with the signature dueling vocals and an amazing guitar hook not unlike some of Thrice's work from Vheissu. And I don't think you can walk away from "Smoke and Mirrors" without the rousing, climactic chorus stuck in your head.

"Pale Blue Dot" serves as the perfectly tragic ending to the album, as it does not seek to undo the wounds of the previous 11 tracks, but simply concedes: "I can live with it, I'll live in it...there's no place like home." Wow. It is truly a beautiful song...and it begs you to take its message personally.

It's one of the best purchases you can make this year. Regardless of the year, this record has the potential to be enjoyed by musicians and philosophers alike for a long time to come."

Very hard album to Review b/c of expectations

Thomas Meli | NY, USA | 08/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like the rest of you, everyone's wondering: could treos do it without casey? Without a value judgment, let me just try and define the differences between this album and their previous one:

The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi:

Less Screaming, and the vocals are mixed in at low volume.

Seems much more influenced by electronica, even in composition not just sound (they use more electronic elements in this album).

Less chord changes and more "slowly adding layers and subtle thickness"

Less synthetic as a work: the melodic element of the album does not tie with itself as deeply as between the heart and the synapse... Although the lyrics and the themes tie in, the music does so only rarely.

It is way more subtle than between the heart and the synapse, and this is due to the mixing. It is extremely difficult to hear certain aspects of the songs because they were mixed to make the elements more in the background than in the foreground. This annoyed me in the beginning, but upon repeated listenings I am grateful for it.

Because it is more subtle, it is less accessable, and less exciting. The energy is more subdued, and the album is markedly calmer than between the heart and the synapse.

The lyrics are equally as amazing, but there is less wordplay (and judging from act II, most of that came from casey).

[end]

So now for my judgements: This album definately takes getting used to, but once you do, and you realize it offers something different from between the heart and the synapse, it really begins to shine.

People are certainly going to be disappointed because the high-energy aspect of treos has become more subdued and made more subtle. I really miss casey's singing-screaming though, and I wish they screamed more on the album, because without it, it seems less passionate.

However, the lyrics and the concept may be the things that made this album so incredible. I've cried several times at the beauty of the lyrics. But the lyrics and the theme of the album might have required the "slowing down" that occurs on this album in order to make it work.

All in all, It is a gorgeous album, but they certainly could have pushed it a bit further, and chopped out some "filler-songs". The mood is completely different from the dear hunter (act II is a masterpiece)... I wouldn't call this album a masterpiece, but its not too far either."

Amazing Concept Album

Ines Olujic | 05/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The follow up to the band's 2005 debut release, Between the Heart and the Synapse, is a bit of a departure from their old sound, yet a pleasant one.

Mi Fa Mi is largely a concept album, streamlined by a single theme: earth and it's miseries. The album title was derived from Kepler's theory that each planet produced tones as they orbited the sun, with the Earth and Venus singing Mi Fa Mi back and forth. Kepler went further to say that Mi and Fa stood for Misery and Famine and that these two things were ingrained even in our planet's tonality.

The album's opening track, "Swallow People Whole" sets the mood for the rest of the record and gives listeners a taste of what is to be expected from the remaining tracks. It proclaims that the character mentioned throughout the songs fell in love with an empty place and wants change but won't change and he will believe every single pretty word the earth sings, but it won't mean a thing.

The album then goes into "Oubliette (Disappear)" which is laced with the classic TREOS guitars and harder beat which were present on their previous album. The song is filled with shouts close to desperation singing, "DON'T LET ME DISAPPEAR!" as life passes by and no milestones are to be found, just apathy and empty things, or maybe even nothing at all.

The third track, "The Crop and the Pest" speaks of exactly what the title suggests. The song is a broken promise, a lie of sorts, a sin. It's a pest eating away at a crop, it's a lover turning his other into a concubine, it's humankind becoming a scab on the face of the planet, it's a leech feeding on it's host with greed.

The next song, "The Salesman, The Husband, The Lover" starts out with a quiet, almost eerie sound. The music is wed with tragedy and silent dread but transcends into an almost angry uproar of guitars, vocals, drums and synths then once again moves back into the quiet tragedy that it began with.

Possibly the heaviest track on the albums is next, "Smoke and Mirrors".

The song speaks of the lurid hold that the world has over us, or at least tries to obtain. The song might remind one of the thought of imagining the amount of suffering and depravity that it takes to build up one person like Rockefeller. And the blindness and deception that it takes to capture people in a state that could only be described as Orwellian and of 1984 in nature. They relate, "I'm not your whore, I won't be your Babylon", suggesting that the world tempts people to prostitute themselves, figuratively speaking, with Babylon being a biblical reference to Rev. 17:5-6 in which Babylon is described as the mother of all prostitutes and a place of greed and brutality.

A melodic plea follows with "A Realization of the Ear" in which no real instruments are heard and an electronic sound more than just dominates.

"Saturnus", an energetic track, is next on the line-up. It mixes synths, guitars and the more experimental sound of the album with drums and a heavy tune very effectively, and winds up being one of the best songs on the album along with "Swallow People Whole", "Stay Small" and "Pale Blue Dot".

A beautiful, melodic songs is revealed in "Wanderers" that later twists into unusual guitar riffs and shows the ingenuity of the album. Then "Stay Small" provides listeners with a gut-wrenching reality check and great song to rock out to, asking the question "If you really loved your kids, would you even bring them into a world plagued by such misery" and manifests the sad truth behind the fact that by the time most people reach adulthood they are raped of any evidence of ever owning any innocence.

Misery, Famine, and Misery really go into effect with "Music of the Spheres". This track is instrumental and simply goes back and forth between Mi and Fa on the scale.

Next, "The Heir of Empty Breath" reflects on the disgrace that so many people become by the time they grow old and fuses a solemn plea with heavy guitars, plenty of energy and barley any other elements which define most of the rest of the album, giving the song somewhat of a raw feel.

The final track on the album is surely one of it's best. At 7 minutes and 22 seconds one might become weary of the length but the song does anything but drag on. "Pale Blue Dot" refers to our planet, Earth, and is the title of one of the most infamous photographs ever taken: Voyager 1's shot of the Earth taken from a distance of 4 billion miles, depicting our planet as nothing more than a little dot against the vast background of the universe.

The song has a haunting quality and the repeated line, "There's no place like home" stays with you hours after you've listened to the song.

Overall, the album is a spectacular follow-up to a spectacular debut. The lack of Casey's voice is evident, but nothing to be majorly worried about. The albums falls together perfectly, piece by piece, each song adding something important to the whole."

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