Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of 5th-11th, 2015:
Human Kindness - Not Apathetic
01. Dorothy
02. 20 Years
03. Ahoy! The St. Croix
04. Glass
05. Midwest Midwinter
06. Interlude
07. Rejoyce
08. Hate Myself
09. Blunder Road
10. Anna, Anna
11. Mishima's Suicide
For those who have been following along with the blog & podcast for a while now you know that I've spilled plenty of digital ink talking up the lads from Human Kindness. Their debut EP You Are So Loud That I Want To Die was one of my absolute favorite releases of 2014 (eventually landing at #4 of Flatbasset Radio's Most Played Albums Of 2014). In my review of You Are So Loud... I said that the album was a mix of hardcore aesthetics and arena ideas and mentioned that, while those ambitions connect more often then not, I was left wondering just what the trajectory would be for Human Kindness. I couldn't tell if this was going to be a thrilling one-off of great tunes built through years of digesting indie rock ideas or if the guys in Human Kindness had grander ambitions.
Enter Not Apathetic and many of those questions have been answered. The album opens with "Dorothy," a brief, melancholy song about daydrinking & sexual tension highlighted by singer David Lawrence Anderson's eye for detail. Despite its brief running time, "Dorothy" is an ideal, if risky, opener to the album. It makes clear that we're listening to an album written and performed by a band that is aware of where they want to go and how they want they're sound to grow, but also by a band that is still wrestling with the insecurities that come with your early twenties.
With the groundwork laid, they launch into "20 Years." Over beautifully jangling guitars Anderson opens the rest of the album by singing, "Sick to death of taking breaths, to scared to not know what comes next..." In just that one couplet, Anderson manages to encompass the feeling of everyone's young adulthood. The theme of anxiety permeates nearly every track on the album. Anderson spends the record trying to cope with that anxiety through alcohol, music, road trips that allow temporary escape (but rarely travel further than 24 hours from home), and sexual encounters that have almost nothing to do with sex. It's an exhilarating ride that, on one hand, makes you want to grab Anderson & give him a good shake but, on the other, makes you long for the days when every interaction, every decision, & every word spoken meant so much. I'd bet all the money in my pocket (roughly $7.60) that Anderson thinks of himself as a cynic, but the tales told on Not Apathetic are the tales of a man who's an optimist (even if he's prone to overthinking things).
While Anderson's lyrics and vocals take the forefront on the album, the racket worked up by the band marks an exciting amount of progress from their debut EP. That EP (which, it should be noted, wasn't mastered) was home to ambitious instrumentals (double whammy "Breathing Deep (For Walking)" and "Breathing Deep (For Breathing)" especially), piano-and-loop based moments of pause, and guitar heroics that aimed for the sky. It was a thrilling ride even if the instruments only really tended to express emotion when either dropped down to confusing loops or fuzzed up to 11. Guitarist Alex Brodsky, drummer Josh Olson, and multi-instrumentalist Willem Vander Ark ensure Not Apathetic takes grand steps to make sure new ideas are worked into the mix and old ideas are fleshed out. Not only are the fuzzed out guitars deployed with more precision now, but they're accompanied by pianos, loops, strings, and horns (!) that, rather than stand alone moments, are fully-integrated, essential parts of the songs, adding gravity & emotion to Anderson's narratives. In many ways, these little additions perfectly mimic Anderson's neurosis, drifting into and out of songs like the stray moments of anxiety that haunt Anderson's narratives.
Again, back in my review of YASLTIWTD I likened Human Kindness to the ducks in the first episode of The Sopranos, stating that the EP made the listener feel like Tony, amused and excited as he watched the ducks learning how to spread their wings and fly. I also warned that we should all enjoy Human Kindness while we can, because if they did in fact have the desire to take flight, they'd belong to everybody. With Not Apathetic that day has come. As the Twin Cities' music scenes continues to turn over from veteran bands to a new generation of bands who still look to Paul Westerberg for ideas, Human Kindness has positioned themselves above many of their garage-rocking peers by scaling down on the fuzzy guitars and cliched lyrics and doubling down on vulnerability, story-telling, risk-taking, and musical ambition. In a city full of bands trying to make their Sorry Ma..., Human Kindness has embraced their modern influences and created an album that finds a place where Separation Sunday, The Londesome Crowded West, & The Photo Album meet. They're flying now, enjoy it while they're still in sight.
Not Apathetic is out now and available for purchase on Human Kindness' Bandcamp page. Pass up a latte this week & spend $5 on it. When all is said and done it just might be the most memorable record of 2015.
