Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Constellation • 2002

It rarely gets better than this in music. Movements reminiscent of Viktor Frankl’s reveries encompassed by Orwellian tinctures and the dynamics of the Philharmonic Orchestra. This album deserves a standing ovation. It is an epic, it is a journey. It is Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Described by the band as “just raw, angry, dissonant, epic instrumental rock”, even their words do it no justice. The album was produced by Steve Albini; it was a magnum opus for both GYBE and Albini. I like most of this band’s work, but Yanqui U.X.O. has a dreary element to it, almost a dreamscape dimension, that offsets any sort of depressive tension their music tends to have at times. A little bit of a shoegaze constituent. Efrim Menuck and the rest of the instrumentalists shine throughout this masterpiece. A beautiful composition.

10/10