Kill

Upon Jamie Stewart’s recommendation I checked out this album and was met with what a neat experimental project that ultimately did a good job conveying ideas I had run across before, albeit in his own way.

So why the change of heart? Well this thing has stuck with me, which is no good reason to boost a score/opinion up so high. But as I’ve revisited it I’ve discovered how truthful Scott Walker was when he spoke of his album Tilt. He didn’t feel like he was doing anything very unique in the grand scheme of music, but the way in which he combined each element, tbat combination is what produced something of merit & ingenuousness. An inevitable outcome in my opinion.

Kill is cut from the same cloth, I’ve heard these ideas, these sounds (mostly) before. But the manner in which he explores the emotions & how he chooses to express them is truly striking. I feel an immense degree of empathy, Bence places us within the frame of this killer perfectly, while depriving us of any external facts to anchor any objective opinion on the matter at hand. But we know, the horror present in the murder of his lover, we know the fear, instability & spritial command that was present in the lead up, we know how sorrow of the act, grief of the loss, or the worsening of his instability manifested in the aftermath. The tense awaiting, pleading for a hope of grace & having the final sentence be sent forth with no clue of its result. Subject to the subjective inferiority of a human being throughout the ordeal, subjected to the horror, both native & cosmic, that was meant to come within his actions, much of which feel pulled away from decision and choice and yet the human imperfections within the grandeur of these vocals establish more than a nuanced portrayal, they present the imperfections & questioning of the sled that only humanity consciously brings forth.

Prior thoughts: Given such a straightforward concept I’m completely blown away by John’s approach simultaneously; baffling & simple. A murky, sorrowful black river of personal failure at its most grotesque & consequential.