#6 - Eluvium | Similes

"OMG GET YOUR FUCKING VOCALS OUT OF MY MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That was generally the overall response to Similes when it first came out early this year. You see this more and more every few years where fans cannot cope with change and compromise to music they enjoy.

It's just like any Tool or Dredg fan who says something moronic like "This band will never be good unless they write another AEnima or El Cielo!" Clearly not true. And although this is a cliche response, why in the fuck would you want a band to continuously write the same shit over and over again you piece of shit asshole human being?

*sigh*

With Similes, Matthew Cooper decided to do a few things differently. For one, there is percussion on this record and that is a first for Eluvium. I think for the most part fans can deal with percussion. There are many minimalistic ambient bands who have songs with some kind of subtle tempo in the background, this is nothing too new.

What really ticked off fans is that Cooper SINGS on this record, and this is definitely the first time there have been lyrics and legitimate vocals on any Eluvium CD.

Now not everybody is going to enjoy his voice, but I'm nearly certain that wasn't even the point. The fact that there were even vocals at all, just in general, pissed people off because it's unique and different for Eluvium and there's apparently some kind of law against any use of the voice box for this project and changing things up a bit is a quality of a musician who needs to spend time in Hell.

Don't listen to any of these people.

Similes encompasses emotion and feeling in music, and a lot of that emotion actually comes from Cooper's words and vocal lines in these songs. The music is as gorgeous as it ever has been, but let's be honest, would "The Motion Makes Me Last" be as incredibly hopeful and depressing at the same time if it didn't have gorgeous vocal lines and lyrics like this?:

"What is it that has my mind so hypnotized?
Evolving on a thought that you've half realized
Life is real only when I am, I am surprised
That shapes are for looking at
And their colors create my mood.

I'm a vessel between two places I've never been."

The answer is no and the consistently great quality of emotion and gorgeous melodies doesn't end there. "Weird Creatures" and "Making Up Minds" are just as great, as well as the ending ambient/drone closer "Cease to Know".

What also pisses me off is that when Eluvium released Static Nocturne only a couple months ago (Which also made my top 10, yes that's right, two Eluvium CDs in the top 10 of 20 goddamn 10), fans joked saying that release was an apology to the fans or a rebound of sorts due to the onslaught of negative feedback from Similes.

NNnno.

That's not how an artist, especially in this style of music works. He or she or the group of people working on this music does not make the music for you, but mostly for themselves. If anything, he wrote Similes for me personally due to the fact that I've fallen asleep to this CD more than any other CD this year.

I hope the next Eluvium CD has more vocals on it. And then I hope he gets signed to Starbucks Records.

Or that he releases THREE CDs per year so I can file them all into my top 10 of next year.