by Scott Yohe
Upper Wilds return with their latest album Venus, an anthemic and immediate record that does not let up for a second. The title of the album is apt because what you get on this record is ten love songs, all with some sort of story or allegory about love. Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, would be grateful that something this good shares her name.
The first thing that is apparent when listening to Venus is just how insane the guitars are on every song. Each track is packed with some sort of wonderful guitar sound that is always satisfying, never lacking anything. It is all exciting, all the time. The next thing about Venus is that it does not calm down at all. Throughout the thirty minute run-time, it does not stop for a second to let you breathe, but that's a good thing because why would you want this to stop? This is the kind of album so packed with interesting ideas that letting up is not an option. The drums and bass are equally as interesting, they keep pace with the guitar the entire time and each shine in their own regards. All of the instruments are immediate and in your face, and yet there is so much to unpack with them. WIth every listen the instrumentals just keep getting better.
As stated earlier, every song has something to do with love, and every song has something interesting to say. All of the songs have some compelling explanation behind them but even if you don’t know what their explanation is, most of these statements are universal. For example, “Love Song #6” is said to be about a “couple left behind by the Heaven's Gate cult” but even if you don’t look at it that way there is still plenty to get out of it. The chorus of “we know how to be alone now” repeating provides its own statement about love, that sometimes you need to know how to be alone to truly understand what something as abstract as love is. At the very center of the album, “Love Song #5” shares the most poetic and important lyrics of the whole record. “You know the sun won't care if you fall in love/And the void still stares if you fall in love/And the blood still boils if you fall in love” really points to an important point. The universe, the sun, the planets etc. do not care if you fall in love, that love is a human thing that means something to us. Regardless of the void staring back, we are going to keep falling in love because it means something to us, love is something that we care about regardless of anything else. Every song has something to say about love and at some level we can all probably relate.
Venus is the kind of album that you can keep listening to over and over because these statements don’t become untrue over time, they last forever. These instrumentals will never be boring. The pace will never let up. Upper WIlds navigates something as universal as love and never make it seem cliche, never make it boring, and always make it unique. Venus is worth your time because it uses all of itself to make a statement worth hearing.