Album Review: The Helio Sequence - Negotiations

The Helio Sequence
Negotiations
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Since their last release, 2008's Keep Your Eyes Ahead the Beaverton, Oregon duo The Helio Sequence could basically have renamed their band The Trials of Job owing to the band's practice space being flooded, as well as singer Brandon Summers shredding his vocal chords and having to completely relearn how to sing again. Granted, after those trials and tribulations it is difficult to fault the band for coming back to life with a rather melancholy and morose album. Negotiations basically ditches the band's former reliance on dense, swirling compositions of neo-psychedelic/shoegaze guitars and quirky arrangements and production flourishes. Indeed, there were many occasions I found myself wondering if I was listening to the right band, as the shift in focus is quite striking.

Opening track "One More Time" could easily fit on The Walkmen's current album, it's stately gothic pop and clean production the complete opposite from the wall of sound of the past. The chiming guitars and forlorn vocal easily flowing along the fuller sounding drums. The comparisons with bands like The Walkman and The National continue with the gentle alt-rock of "October."



Not until "Downward Spiral" do we get a return to the more atmospheric sound of early The Helio Sequence. The dreamy mood is propelled by a wistful vocal, airy synths, and gently echoing guitars.



The focus here seems to be on a more direct approach than normal. A lot of tracks on Negotiations involve broken promises, dreams squandered, lives unlived, and sense that there is no control over anything. This is evidenced by several stark, acoustic numbers. "Harvester of Souls" is a haunting meditation on mortality.



"December" highlights the acoustic guitars with washes of keyboards. The lyrics seem to a plea to a lover to come back to reality, "No more dreams in the corner of your mind/no more ways to make it come out all right/no more faith in the world we knew before/no more peace until you open up your door."



There are returns to more atmospheric tracks. The melancholy synths and ringing guitars of "Silence on Silence" permeate the sad tale of a relationship descending into staleness; U2-esque guitar effects punctuate "The Measure" and its plea to a lover to not make him out to be more than he is; while string synths wash over a dense bed of interlocking guitars on "Hall of Mirrors."



Negotiations will likely not be a huge hit with fans of The Helio Sequence because it is so markedly different from their previous releases. Honestly though, their more quirky experiments never really resonated with me. I always appreciated their technical prowess, but it always seemed the sound was more highly prized than any sort of emotion or feeling. With this album, and perhaps after a few years of bad luck, they have found that soul that was missing.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.