Jesu
Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came

[colored_box color=”grey”]Rating: 6
Label: Hydra Head Records
Website: Link
Author: Kostas Tsotsanis[/colored_box]

Listening to the record in whole, I get a feeling of nostalgia and eagerness. The music’s effects in my psychology is the exact emotions I just described. The whole record is based on trippy melodies. The guitars touch the music like brushes painting on canvas. The record’s tracks are beautiful and provide strong emotions. On the other hand, they aren’t that easy to listen, especially if you are into listening to the record as a whole. ‘Everyday I Get Closer..’ needs a lot of attention to be appreciated and the right mood.

The guitars are trippy, ‘dizzy’ in some points along with soft vocals and atmospheric instrumentations. ‘Homesick’ opens the record, driving progressively through a nostalgic music pattern. Even the distorted guitar riffs here sound soft and ‘melting’, in a song that is quite impressive and reminds of God Is an Astronaut. ‘Comforter’ comes next, with keyboards and slow-paced. There are many orchestrations in this song and in the record in overall. The vocals are under the prism of effects and echoes. The progress is slow, too slow in parts, but satisfying at last. The next song, which title is the same as the title of the record, consists of dizzy, overdriven guitars, which I personally found annoying after a while. However the songs vocals and bass lines are pretty good.

‘The Great Leveller’ is next, a song which lasts seventeen minutes. It starts with piano and violins, to progress through heavy distorted guitars and become soft at last again. The specific song is the strongest moment of the record, totally impressive. The music creates a sad mood and you have to be in the specific mood to appreciate it. The last song of the record is ‘Grey is the Colour’. I find this title to totally represent this song, which is like a grey or black and white landscape. Clean guitars, playing chords’ progressions with a groovy rhythm section on the background. Keyboards add lots of filler parts in this one, making the song sounding redemptive as the ending of the album comes closer.

Although, ‘Everyday I get closer..’ is a fine record, I found myself getting tired in moments. I think it happened because the record targets in specific psychological situation or moods. I like the post-rock attitude of the band but I would love to hear a record which doesn’t include slow-paced songs only. Only time can tell if Jesu’s music can remain at the forefront for a long period of time.