F♯ A♯ ∞

This album did take a few listens to truly appreciate, but when it clicks... wow.

This is technically my first time listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Unless you consider Set Fire To Flames, a band which made similar music and included some of the members from this band, to be apart of Godspeed You!, this would be my first and only time (so far) listening to this group. And while I still much prefer what I heard from Set Fire To Flames, this album is still a great one that, while I do think is a bit overrated, is certainly worth the listen.

Over the course of the many listens I gave this, I ended up going through a few different phases... in one day. At first, I really liked it. On my first listen I was extremely impressed with what I had heard and could definitely see why everyone loves this so much. I probably wouldn't have agreed with all of the nines and perfect scores this gets, but I still very much liked. On second listen, though... to be blunt, I hated it. I probably would have ended up giving it the lowest score on the site. Granted, this may have just been because I listened to it directly after my initial listen, and I realized this and left it for a few hours before returning.

When I came back to give this the third listen, I liked it again, but not nearly as much as I did first time round. But then, part way through the final track, it hit me. This album clicked instantly, and as soon as it was over I needed to give this another listen. And now I can safely say that I love this album.

This album is a very atmospheric experience. At times it can be chill and relaxing, other times it can be loud and intense. At times it can feel really nice, other times it's unnerving. This album is really cinematic. It reminds me a lot (unsurprisingly) of Set Fire To Flames' Telegraphs In Negative, which is actually one of my favourite albums of all time. Both of these albums set a tone early on and continue it, and for the majority of the record it's fantastic.

With only three tracks, at first glance this album can seem short, but then you look at the length of all of them... With the shortest song being sixteen-and-a-half minutes long, I can definitely see why some may think it's a bit extensive. Hell, I'm just glad I'm used to longer tracks thanks to me listening to Swans a lot, because if I had just jumped into this before listening to something else that I knew I would love, then I probably wouldn't have appreciated this as much as I do now. While these tracks did drag on a bit on initial listens, on my latest listen they did seem much shorter than they actually are. Surprisingly, considering the length of all of them, the songs themselves manage to stay consistent in terms of quality and don't get too repetitive at times, which isn't something I can say for the aforementioned Swans' long tracks. But I think this is partly due to the fact that, while listed as three tracks on streaming sites, there are actually way more than three. All three of the tracks are actually many songs which are much closer to the average song length than what is shown. They are sewn together to create a single track, and it works really well.

The Dead Flag Blues is probably my least favourite song here, but it's still a pretty damn good one. It sets the overall tone of the record really well and with ease. The instrumental sections of this track are actually some of the best. Unfortunately, the thing that drags it down so much for me is the spoken-word sections. While the album as a whole does have a few times where people are speaking, it is very rarely brought to the forefront. The album as a whole is mostly instrumental-oriented. This song, however, brings the spoken word section as the focal point of the track, and I just don't care for it at all. The speakers voice doesn't interest me at all, and while what he is saying can be interesting, the way that he is saying it doesn't give me any motivation to actually care enough to go back and dig deeper into the meaning (while I do think it is pretty damn blunt with what he is saying).

The other two tracks, however - East Hastings and Providence - are brilliant start to finish. Considering Providence is nearly thirty minutes in length, it is extremely admirable that it manages to keep the listeners attention for its full duration. However, I do much prefer East Hastings, mostly because of the really intense section that comes in around the middle of the track. Every time I heard it, it just caught me off guard every time with how well it was built up before exploding, and every time I was amazed by it. That part of the track alone lifts it well above Providence in my eyes.

Overall, I think that F# A# ∞ is definitely a great album that is very much worth your time. While I do realize that this isn't the highest score on the site, and the way I praised it may have you believe that I think this album is closer to a 9/10, I personally don't think it is quite of that quality. As I said before, this did take a while to truly click with me, and even after it clicked I wouldn't say I love it as much as other albums. Hell, I don't even love anywhere near as much as either Set Fire To Flames release. But this album definitely shouldn't be discredited because of that. This is an amazing album.

Favourite Tracks: East Hastings; Providence

Least Favourite Track: The Dead Flag Blues