Do Make Say Think's "You, You're a History in Rust"

You, You're a History in Rust
Do Make Say Think
Released February 12th, 2007 (Constellation)

It must be something else being a space rocker. Although your record cover is more likely to make it onto the cover of Rolling Stone than your face, you can sleep assured knowing that flocks of people—from punks to hippies—will come from every corner of the city to see your particular mix of sweeping instrumentals and melodic ambiance. They will absorb with a sacred appreciation scarcely seen in today’s independent music scene, standing mouth agape with eyes closed. They’ll get frustrated with your sparsely vague liner-notes and maybe even curse you, but will re-read them over and over with as much concentration as a Buddhist monk. They will treat you as though you are as wondrous as an alien.

Toronto’s acclaimed Do Make Say Think were probably coined ‘space rock’ after the first show they played. Maybe it was after the first time a friend of the band smoked a bowl and looked up at the sky while listening to ‘Goodbye Enemy Airship’. Or maybe it was when they got signed to Constellation Records. Either way, four years after their tremendous Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, the Do Makes have returned from above with the eagerly-anticipated You, You’re a History in Rust, their most human record to date.

Although still at their textbook best, History is similar to Hymn in that the group is reaching out and attempting to be more diverse from song to song. The booming opener 'Bound to Be That Way' is more effective as the first chapter because it is complimented by the hesitant and sub-dued 'A With Living', a collaboration of sorts featuring the weary chants of Akron/Family. Although hardcore fans may be thrown askew by the vocals, they won't have long to lament before 'The Universe!', a balls-out rocker so fierce that it really does deserve the exclamation mark.

Whereas & Yet & Yet was hypnotic and compelling in a safe way, the variation in sound a mere three tracks into History in Rust shows the band focusing less on keeping the drone intact and more on changing it up. The kind-of title-track accentuates this point by initially catering to an urge for ambient feedback, only to laugh about it (literally) and shift to Ohad Benchetrit's back-yard plucking. The remainder of the album continues in this state of flux: the ironically-titled 'You, You're Awesome' grows from being a lonely electric guitar spitting out chords into a horn and slide-guitar drenched declaration of utter devotion, while 'Executioner Blues' wouldn't have been out-of-place alongside 'Fredericia' or 'Ontario Plates', as it just about does everything Do Make can do. The epilogue 'In Mind', with it's indecipherable lyrics and noisy climax is somewhat reminiscent of that other band that Charles Spearin and Benchetrit are 5% of, but hardly in a bad way. Hell I'm so done made said thought at this point it's easy to forget about everything else. What a terrific record.

TRACK PICKS:
'A With Living', 'You, You're Awesome' -S.M.
'The Universe', 'Executioner Blues' -S.V.
IDEAL LISTENING SETTING:
Wherever you are when the sun is setting.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT:
Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, Broken Social Scene