The Storm

This is a winding, deeply rich album. In a year with quite a few debut (or at least first official) albums making my top 50, I found this one especially impressive considering its immense length and even more immense boldness in the sounds they fill that length with. Sitting at 53 minutes, this album is one of varying moods and sonic expressions. This is most clearly represented in songs such as “Nothing’s Easier” and “Leviathan, Pt. 1.” Both tracks stand at over ten minutes in length, and feature a near dizzying array of vibe shifts. I will focus on “Nothing’s Easier” for this review because that is likely my favorite track on the record.

“Nothing’s Easier” begins with a plucky guitar intro that is downright pleasant, which then shifts into a more electrifying series of riffs, before turning to a mixture of the two along with the introduction of vocals. These vocals hypnotically alternate between a plaintive singing style and a gruff yelling style. The alternating between these two serve to imbue the lyrics with dual moods that perfectly compliment each other, as if locked in a conversation. Moreover, the conversation feels singular in terms of participation. It is a conversation of the self, with the self, and demonstrative of a self on the brink greater emotional volatility.

Take the following passage from the beginning of the track

I feel ugly when I can’t dress in my clothes
I’m incomplete and I pretend that no one knows
Why am I scared to finally be happy again?
I’ll be different, but I’ll always be your friend

To me, these lyrics showcase a simmering internal turmoil between the desire to live a life more truthful to one’s true sense of self. and the inherent difficulties, ranging from inconvenience to active danger, social annoyances to societal ostracization, that are are wrapped up within living that life of greater truth.

Interestingly, as the track progresses, there is a stark shift towards the more extreme of the two vocal deliveries. This follows the following lines, the last delivered in the initial, more mellifluous tone.

Sometimes I just feel like I’m just a man inside a dress
I feel like I don’t fit. Who am I trying to impress?

It is on the very next pair of lines that the shift permanently settles in:

I know you’re lying to me every time you call me pretty
But it makes me happy you might think that about me

I think this shift represents a heightening of this internal struggle as the narrator proceeds down the aforementioned path towards a life of more fulfilling self-expression. The narrator desires, and appreciates, gestures of acceptance, but is hesitant to allow themself to believe its authenticity. The subsequent chorus demonstrates the overwhelming nature of the narrator’s feelings, and how “nothing’s easier,” even if they are on a forward path.

Always back and forth, never linear
Firing at all sides, everything surrounding
I am nothing, empty shaking
One thing is clear, nothing’s easier

However, although there is much that can be gleaned from the lyrics alone, I think the narrative strength of the track is actually, paradoxically, most palpable in the instrumental backhalf. Before explaining myself, let me give you the final pair of actually sung lines (coming up at just under the halfway mark of the track):

But until then I’ll stand by you
And hope you love me the same

Following this, the track precedes down a beautiful, winding journey that feels almost as if it is the grand, climactic resolution of this conflict that is plaguing the narrator. There are numerous shifts, and the combination of the scope of this passage with the complete lack of any sort of explicit explanation allows for the blossoming of all manner of potential events in the mind of the listener. It simultaneously suggest to me that there is a satisfactory resolution, and that such resolution is impossible to know beforehand because to live a more truthful life inherently involves a degree of jumping into the unknown. I find it deeply comforting, as I tend to take a pretty positive interpretation from the track: one of faith in your community to accept you for who you are innately are immaterial of your physical self.

“Nothing’s Easier” is just one example of the carefully sculpted nature of Five Point’s tracks on The Storm, and I cannot emphasize enough how the rest of the album is every bit as majestic and intricate. I highly recommend this one.

Favorite Song: Nothing’s Easier