Album Review: Paper Armies- Trying

Paper Armies is really bumming me out you guys. But in, like, the best way possible.

The third from the recently released batch of seven new joints from Bridgetown Records that I digitally copped, and the second release for Paper Armies on the Bridgetown imprint, Trying wastes no time fucking around with set up, or working towards any kind of atmosphere or feeling—it drops you right into it, whether you are ready to be sad as hell, or not.

The LP’s opening composition, “Embrace It,” is without a doubt, one of the most somber, introspective, and gorgeous instrumental pieces I’ve heard in a long time. Dipping into a post-Basinski kind of vibe, Paper Armies mastermind Jason Calhoun takes blissed out and over-blown piano strains, and layers them with sprays of oscillating white noise, before clearing away all the debris within the final moments of the track. Even the title of this piece itself—it’s like Calhoun is encouraging you to accept your sadness.

He pulls a similar feat shortly after that on “I Lied (I Miss You.)” Though this time, the piano is replaced with slow, cascading, glistening waves of guitar drones, juxtaposed against chip tune-esq digital interference, thoughtfully swirling around everything.

Trying’s second half serves as a bit of a reflection on its first—albeit a bit of a distorted reflection, switching things up by placing more emphasis on the noise and chaos, than on the melancholy, haunted piano notes, that have now been buried slightly deeper into the mix—specifically on the closing piece, “Leave Your Room.”

Saying that Trying is an “emotional roller coaster” is an understatement. There are times when it is actually almost too much—like, the sadness it evokes can just become way too overpowering, with the torrent of harsh noise and desperate beauty crushing you as you listen.

 
Trying is available now as a limited edition cassette, and also as a digital download, via Bridgetown. I would have embedded a Bandcamp player, but there's something wrong with either that, or with Blogger itself, and it doesn't work. Thanks a lot, Internet.