Typhoon
Offerings
Roll
Call
Offerings is
a concept album about memory loss, from the moment of knowing something is
wrong, through the stages of fear, isolation, suffering and acceptance. Its melancholy makes Radiohead sound like a
boy band, as a parallel is also drawn from the central character to the state
of the world today where we “don’t have public trust and there’s just chaos”
(Kyle Morton)
Frontman
Kyle Morton’s gift is to confront the uncomfortable truth in detail that one in
three of us may develop Alzheimer’s with a warmth and compassion brought from
his own experience of multiple organ failure early in his life.
It’s
an emotional seventy-minute journey that should appeal to the fans of The Decemberists,
Frightened Rabbit, Beirut, Jónsi and Alex and The Flaming Lips.
Choral
parts, ambient layering of guitars, piano and strings is perfectly balanced by
the more uplifting songs. The contrasting voice of Shannon Steele raises the
album to another peak.
Opponents
of assisted dying, who may not appreciate the effect of irreversible physical and
mental decline may want to take a listen.
One
of my favourite paintings in Sheffield Graves Art Gallery is Nemours, Seine-et-Marne,
by Henri Eugene Le Sidaner (1864-1939) which is similarly bleak but beautiful,
with much to admire.
I
could happily die listening to this album but would need to ensure that the
hidden track is played, or my last gasp would be my last protest!
NE
