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The Knife : Tomorrow, In A Year (2010)




PREREQUISITES:

• Curiosity: This album deals with scientific themes and may require outside research.
• Patience: This album is on the long side, and use of instruments is highly experimental.
• Technical Appreciation: This album is probably best enjoyed by people who like to listen to music from a technical standpoint. Audiophiles and such...
• Open-Mindedness: This album is for people who are open to hearing something alien or novel, and who aren't turned off by the "weird" factor.

BACKGROUND:

The Knife is one of those acts that I didn't want to get into at first because of all the hype and controversy surrounding them. I can honestly say that I've never been able to fully connect with their musical P.O.V., which often seems abstract, opinionated, and somewhat indulgent.

I was introduced to The Knife by this guy I met online. He's really into the big-name electronic artists on the cutting edge. This is the type of guy who likes artists and groups like Planningtorock and iamamiwhoami. All very streamlined, unusual and intellectual. While I appreciate the amount of intellect and conceptual thinking that goes into those artists' work, their music just doesn't appeal to me- far too "sophisticated," alien, and precise; it makes me feel like I'm sitting in a sterile lab on board a UFO, while Fever Ray sings furiously into a Saturnian microphone shaped like a crystal stalactite.

Beyond that, The Knife's particular style has always come across to me as being too contrived, fussy and pessimistic; with a cutting-edge, futuristic, and somewhat disagreeable style, which doesn't really align with my personal taste very well at all. However, there's the occasional exception to the rule here and there; usually the more vintage-sounding cuts such as "Marble House."

REVIEW:

Created with the help of Mt Sims and Planningtorock, Tomorrow, in a Year is an album which explores the work of Charles Darwin, his observations, studies, and personal life as they relate to his theory of evolution.

Also adapted into a high-concept musical, this is one of the more avant-garde albums released in the past couple of years. Many of the Knife's older fans dislike the album, due to the fact that it lacks its usual lyrical format, and plays around with experimental sounds. I actually prefer this abstract format, as it shows that the Knife can break away from their usual angst-ridden lyrics, and showcase their talent for concept and instrumentation.

To listen to this album, you really need to understand that what you're listening to is, in fact, an electronic opera. It takes patience and focus to understand what it is you're listening to; which I think captures the work of a theoretical scientist quite well. In fact, the odd images and observations that Darwin recorded were used as lyrics throughout, set to an atmosphere which demonstrates both the grandeur of what these observations entail, and the alien nature of living matter viewed at thousands of times magnification.

The album begins with a scintillating introduction, made up of various atmospheric sounds which gather themselves together over the course of the first 4 minutes and 32 seconds. As the drip-drops melt into gentle thunderous noises, which slowly creep in from the edges of the soundscape, I begin to feel my hairs standing on end, one by one. There's a general feeling of suspense, electricity, and solitude, and the listener has a sense that Darwin's world has just begun to materialize.

As the introduction evolves slowly into the intense eeriness of "Epochs," tension begins to build. Eventually, the operatic vocals take their entrance. By this point, the song begins to lull a bit with repetition; and unless I was doing something that required my intense focus while listening at this point, I'd probably begin to drift off a little.

But then, just at the nick of time, in rolls my favorite track of the album, "Geology." The drama heightens, and so does the opera. I've never heard operatic vocals singing so intensely about a scientist's observations before; but in this case it's a hair raising experience. Quite an interesting concept. The thing I like most about this track is its cyclical rising and falling, and the electronic instrumentation that sounds like it's being reeled in and out from a spool. Very different from anything else I've ever heard.



Here are the lyrics for clarity: "A stream of lava formerly flowed over the bed of the sea, triturated recent shells and corals, baked into hard white rock. A precarious matter. I found a curious little stony cellaria. Each cell provided with a long toothed bristle capable of various and rapid motions. Simultaneous, and can be produced by irritation."

Cool stuff if you're into biology and/or physics.

From there, the album's feeling gets even more epic with the onset of "Upheaved," which literally creates the feeling of tectonic forces causing an upheaval, building up to what will become a mountain range.



"Constant earthquakes, the wonderful force which has upheaved these mountains. These countless ages required to have broken through, removed, and leveled the whole mass of them."

"Minerals" is the one that really creeps people out, which admittedly gives me a bit of maniacal pleasure. It jumps out at you when you least expect it. This track is explosive, penetrating, and powerful, and the vocals are manic and intimidating. It's so incredibly electrifying and out-there that the first time I listened to it, I had to keep playing it over and over. It's kind of like a shock of adrenaline in a way.



After "Minerals," the album starts to go downhill for me. The track "Ebb Tide Explorer," is a tad annoying. Very slow and drifting, with the words "egg salmon" and "frame of mind" floating around in a cold soup of electronics. Yuck. It just gets a little too druggy from here on in, and I'm pretty sure Charles Darwin wasn't ever on acid. If I'm wrong, well, I guess I missed something.

"Variation of Birds" is another odd track. A very insightful Youtuber made the point that it can represent the full circle of the evolution of musical inspiration; from birds to humans to synthesizers back to birds. Not that I agree, but it's an interesting concept derived from a conceptual song. The song itself just talks about Darwin's observations of the variation of birds, and maintains that horrid druggy atmosphere, which by this point begins to give me a headache.

"Letter to Henslow" is good if you don't mind the sound of seagulls , and "Schoal Swarm Orchestra" is merely a collection of sleepy nature sounds and semi-industrial ambience. Pretty boring if you ask me.

On Disc 2, "Annie's Box" is a very popular track with fans, as it sticks with a more traditional operatic format, and sounds like a cinematic piece. But besides the lovely use of violins, this song seems mediocre compared to some other tracks on this album. "Seeds" is probably one of the more conventional and popular songs on Tomorrow in a Year, adding a splash of color and momentum that is much needed at this point. The last 2 songs of the album really test my patience, and once the album is over, I feel like I can breathe again. I think you either really need to appreciate Charles and his ideas or the Knife to really get into it, but they do a good job of paying tribute to his work as a scientist.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:

While this album is a touching and unorthodox tribute to Darwin, I think that it will only truly capture fans that are whole-heartedly invested in the overall idea. Most people who have really enjoyed this album have been the ones that are either curious about Darwin's work, or that are willing to put in the time and effort to understand the meaning of each and every song in order to look at the album in context. This is a concept album that requires outside research and prior knowledge in order to be fully appreciated, and therefore, it's going to alienate some people.

That being said, from a purely musical perspective, Tomorrow in a Year offers electronic music fans a chance to embark on an interesting adventure of sorts. There are sonic arrangements on this album that are simply mind-blowing and worth hearing. This "electro-opera" required a lot of research and innovative thinking. What I appreciated most was that the Knife, Mt Sims and Planningtorock were able to irreverently uproot opera- to take it away from its usual aristocratic formality- and just have fun with it; molding it into unusual forms that are startling and dynamic.

If you're like me, you'll be picky about what kinds of sounds you like on this album and which ones you don't, but it's worth a listen or two. Who knows, it may just contain a hidden gem.

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