The Perfect Record

The Perfect Record

Matthew Winters

Anyone under the gun at this end of the semester can relate to pressure and the overwhelming feelings that it produces. School is almost out, stress on relationships, work, work, work, constantly feeling like the pressure is going to consume you. Manchester Orchestra front man Andy Hull can relate. On 2006's mini masterpiece I'm Like a Virgin, Losing a Child, Hull created micro breakdowns, sketches of the brutality of relationships and family gone wrong. "Where Have You Been?" being the perfect example: a six-plus minute slow-raging epic about the moment of truth in a relationship.

Three years and a bunch of tours under their belts Manchester have created the masterpiece of their very young career. Mean Everything to Nothing is the sonic equivalent of a person descending into depression and bi polar disease. The songs blend together but clash at the seams, creating a dissonance and powerful front for Andy Hull dramatic statements. "I can't speak … I sing" he yelps on the near perfect "Pride" backed by monstrous guitar and bombastic drums. "I've Got Friends" is the quintessential song for anyone that has ever thought about ending it and realizes that they are needed by their friends, and by using the repeated phrase "I've got friends in all the right places / I know what they want / And I know that they want me to stay" it is almost like Hull is trying to convince himself and his audience that it is true. "I Can Feel a Hot One" is reused from last year's stopgap EP Let My Pride Be What's Left Behind, but it works so well in this album, it is a quiet moment of reflection in an album of confusion and noise. "The Only One" is the moment that a person realizes that they are going insane but knows no one else sees it.

Mean Everything to Nothing is nothing short of a masterpiece. As an album it shows the talent that these men have. I would say that this is the first perfect album of the year and it is one that people will look at 10 years down the line and revere it like Nevermind by Nirvana, Steady Diet of Nothing by Fugazi, or The Pixies' Doolittle. This is music that defines a generation, not because it tries to be amazing, but because it crushingly is amazing.

Originally Published in The WSU Signpost 4/17/09