A Welcome, If Not Exciting, New Album Of Original Music
It’s hard to believe five years have passed since Lost Themes II unexpectedly arrived at my local record store. Considering what an expansion it was of John Carpenter’s singular music making abilities, I should have known it was heralding the arrival of the celebrated artist’s most prolific period since the 1980s. From the 2016 springboard, Carpenter has toured, released a compilation album of killer movie music re-recordings (Anthology), written a fresh and haunting movie score for the surprisingly excellent Halloween (2018), and now… my dude has a phone app.
More on that later. I’m here, of course, to talk about the latest in his series of original music releases. Throughout the course of the many ventures mentioned above, he continued growing his collaboration with son, Cody Carpenter, and Godson, Daniel Davies. 2021 finally welcomes their third record of themes found: Alive After Death. This is the first album in the series to be given a subtitle, and although it does offer several standout tracks, the subtitle is sort of the only newness it has to offer.
I like this album. I really do. However, where the first two (and that damn great Halloween score DAMN) really leaped from the dark and grabbed me, this is the first one to feel a bit like it’s just more of the same. I find it difficult to look past that small disappointment, but upon several listens, I’ve found a lot to love on III.
With the opening title track, we’re off to a reliably spooky start. A keyboard’s sustained low note creates a musical pavement for an uneasy series of high notes to walk on. This track possibly gives the listener a glimpse of the familial trio’s writing process. It starts small, but gradually many layers complicate the musical landscape until leading melodies emerge and shine through. The strongest leading element throughout this record seems to be some really craftily played electric guitar. Several tracks offer a lot of room for the player to operate in, and one can almost feel the delicacy taken in the attack of each bent pitch, or pinched harmonic. It’s a nasty good performance (mostly, I believe, by Cody).
To my mind, these parts make up the album’s most appealing whole on “Weeping Ghost”. It just offers so much for the listener to sink their ears into. A variety of sumptuous distorted synth tones sneak along that classic 80s chugging drum machine variety of percussion. It might also offer the album’s catchiest melody, thanks in no small part to one of the more satisfying chord progressions I’ve ever heard from these musicians.
Like I said, there are many tracks I like on Alive After Death, but to remain somewhat brief, I’d like to mention the only other track I really love. “Turning the Bones” offers a kind of innocence, and a creeping curiosity that skitters away just as you feel you might be getting acquainted with it. It’s comparable to an encounter with a stray animal; only this one isn’t so furry as much as it is a very charming collection of synth textures with an attractive tune. I like it more for not overstaying its welcome. Like so many things in life, its mystery makes it more appealing. That’s really the problem with the majority of this record. There isn’t much mystery, because so much of it is a little too familiar. Perhaps its lack of obvious appeal, though, will be the impetus for my revisiting it routinely. The real conundrum: why is a Carpenter super fan, such as myself, not immediately smitten?
THE PACKAGE
As anticipated, creative forces behind the design of this LP have created an elegant and fitting release. Even in that regard, however, LOST THEMES III doesn’t quite offer the “coolness” of its predecessors. Those die-cut outer sleeves on II and Anthology just about made this nerd drool. This package does offer incredibly intense photography from Sophie Gransard. I would like to know more about how label, Sacred Bones, and the band, navigate the design process, because they always deliver something so fun to look at… this time in about a dozen variants!
I dove onto the Sacred Bones mail-order exclusive like it was a live grenade surrounded by clueless puppies. It features a red, white, and black “striped” disc. For whatever reason, the label seemingly offered up this album to just about anybody who wanted a piece, and now there are several websites offering stunning colored vinyl permutations. Google if interested. Mine also came with a huge poster my fiancé is begging me to frame and hang over our bed. What a weirdo….
As always, Sacred Bones offers a digital download card for convenience, which brings us to the final mixed-bag item on this review’s to-do list…
This record sounds incredible! The first several releases from Sacred Bones bore the hallmarks of direct-from-digital sourcing. They were flat, lacking dynamics, and a bit distorted. They were fun to hear, but didn’t exactly offer much in the way of fidelity. I’m happy to report that within the last three years or so, this label must have starting paying for vinyl mastering. This bad boy bursts right out of your speakers with sound you can really feel. With tactile sound, also comes physical noise… POP….tick, click..
Happily, I can assume my copy may be an outlier. According to reviews on Discogs.com, most listeners report “dead silent wax”. Buy with confidence, friends!
And yes… he now has an app for Storm King Productions, which is he and wife, Sandy King Carpenter’s, media empire. Plenty of information there on their comic book publications, his music, a never-ending trivia game, and monthly contests you can enter free of charge! Check it out wherever you get your phone apps.
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