A year ago, we went to see the LA Philharmonic perform Song of the Earth, a song cycle largely about climate change from David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors. I enjoyed it a lot, considering that it’s more experimental than my tastes tend to run, and the subject matter is pretty heavy.
At the time, I said I hoped that one day there would be an album release, since even though I can’t say with much confidence that I understood it or even felt it to its fullest effect, there were still several themes from it that kept bouncing around in my head. Today is that day, and you can get a recording of it from bandcamp and streaming services.
For a “serious” work, it’s got an awful lot of hooks. Or I guess they’re more accurately called motifs or something. In any case, the best example of that is “Gimme Bread,” which has a repeated “Yeah yeah” and xylophone flourish that is carried on throughout the rest of the work. (And the drive home, and the months afterwards).
Another thing I said at the time was that because of my very limited frame of reference for modern symphonic music, I kept being reminded of Orion by Philip Glass. Not just for the sense of repetition, but because it’s surprisingly accessible for those of us who don’t typically like orchestral or classical music. My favorite is “Brazil,” which I first heard as part of the excellent soundtrack for the PSP game Lumines.