This Beautiful Mess |
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Sometimes a band’s name just fits perfectly, and that’s definitely the case here because the songs being created by this Dutch act are a collective beautiful mess, at least on an emotional level. If you look closely at the sound alone, though, it’s thin and delicate, with beauty carved out of simplicity. And despite giving an impression that This Beautiful Mess have the power and enough wits to rock much more heavily, they prefer to cling to a more understated form, filling out the basic drums, bass, and guitar situation with violin, piano and horns where necessary.
Album opener, ‘Come One, Come All’ demonstrates this perfectly, building up gradually on a two-chord riff, and just as you think it’s finally about to go off, it breaks carefully into a gentle piece with Lydia Wever singing, relieving the tension and offering the first real emotional connection of Temper the Winds…
The second immediate connection is the lovely ‘For Me Ten Others’, which is a pretty acoustic number, yet very far from the standard acoustic fair that you typically find in an emo/post-rock scene. But with Arjen van Wijk singing “I am on the verge of a bankruptcy / What is it that you could possibly want from me? / What is that you give me credit for? / I’ve got nothing here that’s nothing already yours”, the confusion of the questions are answered by the melodies alone and everything suddenly just falls into place. Equally as fragile is ‘Refugee’, which is as appealing and hypnotic as Sigur Rós or Radiohead at their best.
Even when there is a bit more edge to tracks like ‘Up the Barricades’, the reigns never slip to let things get out of control. Every song seems to carry its own individual message and a beautiful moment to go with it. ‘Wood For Trees’ has its swaying rhythm compounded by the starkness of its lyrics, ‘Don’t Go There’ has its almost pop-like chorus, which sinks hooks in on first grapple, and ‘Did You Mean It To Be A Fight’ has the perfect feel to end the album on.
It’s not an album to throw itself at you and demand attention, as such. Instead,
you just absorb more and more on each listen, and in the end you have to feel
a bit of respect for This Beautiful Mess because this is a solid record with
plenty to offer. On a selfish level, though, I don’t want them to escape their
confusion and troubles if it’s always going to mean songs of this quality.
Steven McCarron
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