What has struck me most about a lot of the music I’ve been listening to across 2024 are the truly creative ways in which musicians interpret, react and respond to the world in which we live our daily lives. We often speak of music being inescapably for and of ‘our time’. But this year, in particular, seems to have captured the distinctive quality of the atmosphere and the mood of how life feels here and now. It speaks profoundly to the kind of existence we’re living, the struggle to keep going, the suffocation of hope, and the momentary oases of joy amidst the overbearing swell of cynicism, resignation and routine. It speaks to everything.
An Ordinary Life, the 3rd studio album from Long Earth, perfectly distils this pervading and, at times, suffocating resonance. It permeates every one of the eight musical sketches with which we are presented and infuses each one with a poignant, troubling presence. Together, they paint a creatively elegant and truly emotional musical portrait of the unmistakable essence of what we go through and how we wrestle with the situations and circumstances which make up a life.
Opening track Fight the Hand that Bleeds You (Track 1) fires the opening salvo; it is an unapologetic ten-minute, cathartic onslaught built on the tumultuous, throbbing foundations of a rock heavy bass foundation, with glorious melodic refrains camouflaging poisonous lyrics decrying the state of modern politics; the duplicity, double-standards, bare-faced lying disguised as truth, honesty and integrity. Punchy chord structures underpin the glitz and show of the political arena. A refined middle interlude beautifully exposes the spurious affrontery of those who ‘serve’ us and claim to work for our ‘greater good’. But then the mood turns: the betrayal of hope. Not everyone who smiles at you is a friend. When we scratch the surface, it becomes apparent that we are surrounded by those we cannot trust.
Morpheus (Track 2) offers a glimmer, a taste, of something different. Delightful dancing arpeggios happily sing us to sleep, whispering of far-off dreams and adventures. The hypnotic voice lures and lilts us into other worlds where we can escape from the unremitting grind of daily life. Sleep promises us what so often lies beyond our reach. The Sandman comes, light, airy melodies skipping through our troubles, promises of realms where possibilities are tantalisingly real. We can be anything we want. We can live our dreams. It’s a delicious song, elusive, fleeting and magical. We can, for a moment, be somewhere better.
The Arc (Track 6) is the second part of the ‘Life’ trilogy, which begins at Track 3 (Life) and ends with Track 8 (Empty Shore). In many ways, it encapsulates the album’s message as a whole. It’s a homage to growing old, how we gradually become aware of the passage of time, the bewildering sense of life accelerating and the impending feeling of time running out. Where once the world stood at our feet and everything felt possible, we are faced with the disturbing awareness of the time we have left. Where have the years gone? A wistful refrain clings to the love of a life partner. We grow old together. Not even love lasts forever.
Moscow (Track 7) is majestic, unforgiving, and obdurate. It has an almost Caribbean lilt that transforms into a wonderful cascade of melodic power rock before returning to the simplicity and bareness of an undulating bass line. Glorious keyboard riffs set the tone as they growl and smoulder, building momentum and driving the music forward. Guitars raise to a fever pitch before the drums switch their time signature to slow the pace and bring us back down to earth.
This is a glorious album of inventive contrasts. The songs effortlessly capture the scenes of a life, along with all the moments and episodes which make it that particular life. But don’t be fooled, not even for a moment. Although from one angle, these moments may well seem like nothing more than the chapters and instalments in the gallery of an ordinary life, what Long Earth have so exquisitely crafted is testimony, if any were needed, that all our lives are, in fact, extraordinarily far from being ‘ordinary’.
An Ordinary Life is an album of unrestrained skill and ingenuity which loudly proclaims that ours is, ultimately, never ‘merely’ or ‘simply’ an ordinary life. We can make of it what we will. Live it. Savour it. Enjoy everything which comes with it. It is better to have lived than never to have lived at all.
TRACK LISTING
01. Fight the Hand That Bleeds You (10:39)
02. Morpheus (6:54)
03. Life i (6:02)
04. Sand (7:08)
05. Shadows (10:57)
06. Life ii – The Arc (5:26)
07. Moscow (8:08)
08. Life iii – Empty Shore (7:56)
Total Time – 63:10
MUSICIANS
Mike Baxter – Keyboards
Martin Haggarty – Vocals
Renaldo McKim – Guitar
David McLachlan – Bass
Alex Smith – Drums
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Grand Tour Music
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 4th July 2024
LINKS
Long Earth – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X
