Maybeshewill
No Feeling is Final

Label: The Robot Needs Home Collective
Three similar bandds: God is an Astronaut/We Lost the Sea/Mogwai

Rating: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
Tracks
1. We've Arrived at the Burning Building
2. Zarah
3. Complicity
4. Invincible Summer
5. The Weight of Light
6. Refuturing
7. Green Unpleasant Land
8. Even Tide
9. The Last Hours
10. Tomorrow


Band:
James Collins - drums
Matthew Daly - keyboards
John Helps - guitar
Robin Southby - guitar, synth, programming
Jamie Ward - bass


Discography:
Not For Want of Trying (2008)
Sing The Word Hope In Four​-​Part Harmony (2009)
I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone (2011)
Fair Youth (2014)


Guests:
Thomas Leate - violin, viola
Molly Carter - cello
Ceri Ashwell - voice
Zara Sultana - voice
Matt de Burgh Daly - piano
Chris Small - Trombone, Euphorium
Claude Lumly - French Horn
Marcus Joseph - Saxophone
Gary Perrin - Trumpet


Info:
Recorded at Seamus Wong Studios, Dulcitone Studios and Attenborough Arts Centre by Jamie Ward
Produced and mixed by Jamie Ward
Mastered by Tom Woodhead
Artwork Photography by Fraser West
Layout by John Helps

Released 2021-11-19
Reviewed 2022-03-20

Links:
maybeshewill.net
bandcamp
the robot needs home collective



läs på svenska

Maybeshewill released four albums between 2008 and 2014, then they had a long hiatus before reforming and releasing a new album called No Feeling is Final. I guess that means the feeling that led to the hiatus wasn’t final in the end, and the fans got a long-awaited new album. An album that is covered by a pretty generic landscape, a similar view to what you can see in many places. And they give us ten tracks that starts with a burning building and ends tomorrow.

It is a few choirs and spoken word things, but mainly an instrumental release in the post-rock genre. Cinematic is a thing I read on the paper that followed the CD, and perhaps it is as you can look at it as background music that might fit a movie. The production is good and we get to hear a pretty decent amount of performers and instruments with horns, sax, trumpet, piano, violin, cello and more along with the regular guitars, drums and those things. It isn’t the most exciting release from the creative standpoint as it doesn’t really offer anything we haven’t heard before. But it is a message of hope and solidarity, something that it might convey if you have the right imagination.

In the press sheet I read about the growing grassroots movement across the world that imagine new realities based on equality and sustainability. Something probably gravely needed for a mankind who has created a world where inequality is the norm, and insane consumption is the driving force. I think of this and listen to the speech in the track Zarah about the worst carbon emitters at the same time as I read that the temperatures in eastern Antarctica are at a record high over 30 degrees warmer than normal. It is not like the planet isn’t warning us about the changing climate, but do we try to limit the changes or adapt? No, we just consume and complain about high fuel prices, where I live we take the airplane to destinations around the world very often. Then we complain about increasing food prices due to worsening harvests and things like that without ever thinking about how our own action influence things. The dumbest thing I hear is that we shouldn’t try to limit out emissions because others aren’t, so I should go around killing people because the Russians are doing it anyway so it doesn’t matter as long as I do it less than them?

I hope this message of hope and solidarity make a change, the album is good, but it is mostly great in the first few tracks to then slowly wane into something that I don’t even listen to towards the end. Fans of the band and genre might see it a bit differently though, and it is probably worth giving it a chance if you are one of those fans. But I think there are way better upcoming and recent albums in this genre, so it is not for the generalists. Unless you want to promote solidarity and hope, maybe a worthwhile effort in itself.

HHHHHHH