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Do Make Say Think, "You, You're a History In Rust"
If Toronto's Do Make Say Think haven't changed much in the decade or so they've been on the scene, it's because they haven't needed to. Their mastery of their basic aesthetic elements—from their natural, textured guitar sound, to their melancholy passages, huge crescendos, album-long symmetry and even their earthy packaging—works so well that they need little evolution. It's as if they found the perfect moment and haven't left it in ten years.
Constellation
It's because this blueprint is so well-developed that additions are easily absorbed and sometimes barely noticed. On You, You A History in Rust, this previously-instrumental band introduces vocals ("A With Living"), although they are given no preferential treatment. The vocals appear, make their statement and recede before a long trickle of instrumentation twice as long as the vocal segment. It's as if to say "a voice box, a singing saw, a violin…it doesn't matter what it is as long as it can express longing."
Similarly, "The Universe!" has the instruments fused, chugging along like a proper indie pop song (uncharacteristic for them) before disintegrating into a mass of noodling noise (much more characteristic). It in turn gives way to the gentle acoustic "A Tender History in Rust." It makes sense. These sounds could only have existed side-by-side. Everything they do makes sense.
The obvious criticism of DMST is to say "if I have one record, why would I need another?" Well, because the law of diminishing returns doesn't apply to them. They have stretched out this sound without losing impact. And when you find something beautiful, don't you want more of it?
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