Red Sparowes

The Fear is Excruciating, but Therein Lies the Answer

(Sargent House)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

When we last heard from Red Sparowes – and it’s been a little while, with their last full-length having come in 2006 – our verdict was “absolutely amazing.”  Nowhere to go but down, right?

Not quite.  The third album from the post-rock champs picks right up where they left off – which is basically as one of the few bands who make their particular genre, one that’s dominated by dramatic instrumental tension and crushing rock crescendos, feel inexhaustible rather than thoroughly tapped out.  Our jaws may never drop the same way they did when we first scaled the heights of one of those post-rock peaks – whether it was Godspeed, Mono or Explosions in the Sky serving as our Sherpa.  So Red Sparowes wisely vary their bag of tricks and don’t over-rely on that point of combustion as their only hook.

We’ve already shouted the praises of “Giving Birth to Imagined Saviors,” the free track that was sent out into the world in advance of the album release.  In the context of The Fear is Excruciating, it’s even more powerful, positioned around the mid-point, following on the heels of the punch-packing “A Hall of Bombs” and releasing some jubilant-sounding steam prior to moodier, murkier tracks in the latter half like “A Swarm” and “A Mutiny.”  One of the band’s differentiation points is the pedal steel played by Greg Burns, which enhances the expressive mournfulness that permeates the album.

There are no vocals, of course, but there is a narrative arc all the same – communicated in emotional colors rather than the written word.  With instrumental albums, the temptation is always to read too greatly into song titles and album titles, but The Fear is Excruciating, but Therein Lies the Answer does indeed seem to communicate some essential truth about what Red Sparowes are up to here, delving into the darkness in order to come out on the other side.  In this case, the “other side” is closer “As Each End Looms and Subsides.”  After spending the whole album being grateful for the band’s refusal to adhere to post-rock predictability, my spirits were lifted here when the Sparowes ripped off a potential climax only to circle back around and top it tenfold.