156: Men I Trust - The Landkeeper

I'm not sure why it took me so long to listen to the new Men I Trust record. Sometimes life just slips past. I finally played it today, its sweet sounds filling the flat like evening light s I wandered around tidying, preparing dinner, small acts in the hope they add up to something bigger.

Years ago, I remember reading someone urge that the best way to listen to a new album isn't to give your full unbridled attention, but to let it drift away in the background somewhere. If it can still pull you under its spell in such circumstances then you're onto something special.

And this is special. It's meditative and beautifully lofi, an intimate soundtrack to a flick-book of memories that you don't remember ever belonging to you. It almost rolls out like a sweet and affectionate take on Diamond Jubilee, a wash of something radiant and singular; so keenly detailed.

Opening track 'I Come With Mud' is soothing, poetic country music, plain and perfect, while a song like 'Paul's Theme', for instance, is peculiar and oddly moving, a slice of skewed genius pulled straight out of movie, a hidden relic found in the dusty back corner of the Drive My Car soundtrack.

'The Landkeeper' might be the place that it all comes together, however. A marriage of the album's many spiralling themes and tones, its mood is hard to place - and all the more compelling for that - while lyrically it feels gently astounding. Honestly, I've never really heard much like it before. It's unique and exquisite, picking at pieces of yourself you forgot you still held.

Morning dew on cherry trees
Fruits that carry tears
The soul and heart retrieves

So many stories, many deeds
About the man who grafted breeds
Instead of sowing seeds

And he lives on, in the land’s memories

I found myself, at home away from home
This soil, both far and known
The Sun intones as life and death goes on
The ground I thread around

Strong arms nurtured heart and kin
Care in every seed
Taught them how to grow within

Gentle hands that shaped the earth
Alive and gave it worth
With love, a lasting birth

I Found myself, at home away from home
This soil, both far and known
The Sun intones as life and death goes on
The ground I thread around

Buy the whole  Equus Asinus LP now, via Bandcamp

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