The Ascent Of Everest – How Lonely Sits The City

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."That quote itself could have been the perfect review for The Ascent Of Everest's debut How Lonely Sits The City. Now, I admit to being a bit of a lazy person, but even I'm not that lazy... So here goes: Post-rock has never really been my "thing". Perhaps it's my short attention span doing battle with the often marathon-length tracks, or maybe it's my partiality to things like, say, lyrics. Upon receiving HLSTC, I was admittedly daunted by the album's scant five tracks, ranging in length from seven to fourteen minutes. Still I approached it with the same open mind I try to approach any new music, and I came away considerably moved by the album's mixture of subtle beauty and crashing intensity.HLSTC opens majestically with 'Alas! Alas! The Breath Of Life!'. Strings, piano, guitars and percussion weave in and out of each other's paths to transport the listener from delicate melody to heart-rate spiking fervor. It's so lovely a journey that by the time the last pluck of a guitar string dwindles you can hardly believe twelve minutes have passed by. 'As The City Burned' and 'Molotov' maintain the passionate momentum of Alas! Alas!, both drenched in urgency and brimming with electricity.In 'A Threnody', a dedication to "The Victims Of November Second" (that is, the November 2nd when George W. Bush was elected to his second presidential term), TAOE samples excerpts from Mario Cuomo's keynote speech at the 1984 presidential election over eerie strings, xylophones and chant-like vocals before exploding into a whirling frenzy. It's somewhat of a parallel track to the others on the album - the music is just as haunting and spilling emotion all over the place, yet just as, and maybe even more, haunting are Cuomo's words themselves. Here we are 24 years later and his speech resonates with as much validity as it did when he was speaking about Ronald Reagan. 'If I Could Move Mountains' is quite simply a masterpiece in three movements, a sprawling and ambitious track to wrap the album.I am normally loathe to pigeonhole bands into categories, but TAOE is undeniably post-rock; they use those stereotypical standbys of drone, crescendo and explosion to wrench incredibly varying emotions from the listener. I suppose that's what makes a genre a genre. How Lonely Sits The City was first released in July of 2006, but has seen a re-release this summer. If there is any musical justice, this time around will see more press for this band and their amazing debut. Even as a music reviewer, I urge you to remember that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Check this album out. 91%Links The Ascent Of Everest [myspace] [label]