Album Review: A Little More Life

Right the get go this isn’t an album for the musically faint-hearted. The opening song A Saint Is Divided builds gently and beautifully into a maelstrom.

At 7:16 long, track two Seige is exactly that. It’s a monolith of a song with many instruments colliding and playing around each other.

By track 3, Creeping Hands, it’s pretty evident this album is no walk in the park. It’s fascinating and intriguing. Amongst the tags on the album’s Bandcamp page is the description and hashtag ‘prog’, and it is very fitting, as the instrumental work on this album is technically proficient and gloriously over the top.

Song 4 titled Rollcall is wonderfully frantic, a rollercoaster driven by percussion.

Lispenard St has almost a New Orleans vibe, reminding me of a traditional Creole funeral procession, except perhaps a wee bit faster.

Raincoats is a gloriously atmospheric piece, building gradually, before subsiding again.

I Crawled In Through A Buttonhole is my favourite track, both for its title, and I found it the most charming of the compositions.

If there’s one thing I love about the Bandcamp release of A Little More Life by A Straw Assembly, it’s that the words to all of the songs are written on each of the song’s pages, as M Lane’s vocals are swamped with many layers of effects, and they’re really nicely crafted lyrics, but the treatment does suit the album.