As I enter the top five, I have finally reached my favorite band of all time. Isis may have called it quits a couple of years ago, but they left behind a great catalogue of music that I will listen to for as long as I can hear. Choosing just one song was incredibly tough, so as you will see I cheated a bit. But for official purposes, the #5 song just happens to be the first one I ever heard from the band.
#5: So Did We - Isis
I started writing this post with the "Runners-up" section, as I usually do for this series (It's the easiest part to write, so I like to get it done first). I soon realized that it was getting a little out of control, so I decided to repurpose that section and do a countdown within the countdown of my favorite Isis songs. Instead of writing a general blurb about each one, I'll try to focus on one aspect of each song that goes to show why Isis is my favorite band.
#10 - Poison Eggs - Mosquito Control EP
Aspect: Loud
Early-period Isis is loud. Very loud. There is no getting around the wall of noise, whether it comes from this song, or from their next EP The Red Sea, or even their first LP, Celestial. Not every song from this period works, and not every album has the same production quality as their later work. However, there is a rawness and a power at the forefront of their early work that would go on to provide the backbone of the rest of their career.
#9 - The Other - Oceanic
Aspect: Loud and Soft
While Isis reduced their overall intensity as they aged, they still were able turn up the volume on occasion, as they did in "The Other." The key difference, and indeed the difference that elevated them from good band to great band, was that the loudness was more focused. Instead of blasting their way through almost every song, the Isis of the 2000s found ways to play their louder sections off of their quieter movements for maximum effect.
#8 - Celestial (The Tower) - Celestial
Aspect: Shiftiness
Where "The Other" displays a pretty stark contrast between loud and soft, "Celestial" shows Isis' ability to be a little more subtle than that. "Celestial" is probably Isis' first truly great song. It achieves this status by starting off with the intensity of their earliest work and then taking it to a whole new place with the reserved bridge leading towards the ending. The ending is as intense as their previous albums but in a completely different, much more aural way that would signal that the best was yet to come.
#7 - Backlit - Panopticon
Aspect: Themes
Many great bands write terrific songs that perfectly encapsulate some of the most important themes of our times. The best bands are able to go a step beyond this by carrying these themes across an album or even an entire career. Isis has often fallen back on their water and tower motifs, but they have also involved some more specific references. Panopticon is largely about Jeremy Bentham's contraption that allows one to watch over all of their subjects at once without being seen (as you might guess the most common application of this is prison). Backlit is the song that seems to be most directly about this ("Thousands of eyes, gaze never ceases"). Efforts like this can come off as too academic and/or stuffy in lesser hands, but Isis is able to incorporate it with aplomb.
#6 - Weight - Oceanic
Aspect: Patience
Part of the challenge of mastering the loud/soft dynamic is pacing. If you alternate between the two too rapidly, then you run the risk of minimizing the impact of the loud sections. Conversely, too much buildup can lead to lengthy sections of music that serve no purpose than to set up others. Isis generally manages a good balance, but there is probably no better example of their ability to slowly and effectively build a song like "Weight." There's nothing musically complex about the song, so the gradual build to the conclusion is everything, and Isis does it as well as anyone. Fun fact: this song appeared in the penultimate episode of season one of Friday Night Lights during the mud football game sequence.
#5 - Threshold of Transformation - Wavering Radiant
Aspect: Chilling
As a whole, "Threshold of Transformation" is probably not Isis' fifth-best song. The first five-odd minutes lack focus and jump from section to section without much cohesiveness. However, I tend to forget about the first part when I get to the stunning back half of the song (which would also turn out to be the end of their final studio album). The slow buildup to the end is simple yet powerful, perfectly encapsulating the sorrow of the song. The cherry on top is the how the last minute pulls the rug out from under the listener. After 8 minutes of mostly loudness, a single guitar line with only deep ambient noises in the background finishes the song as beautifully as any. Isis wasn't quite as great near the end, but they found a fantastic way to go out on top.
#4 - Carry - Oceanic
Aspect: Songwriting
Isis was always terrific at all of the "micro" aspects of making music. The layering of the guitars was always handled fantastically, and Aaron Harris' often off-beat work on the drums was fabulously creative and minimal. What tied all of that together was probably their greatest strength: Their ability to form great songs from all of these ingredients. This track from Oceanic might be the best example of this. "Carry" is relatively compact (six minutes is on the low end of Isis song lengths), but is still able to run the full gamut from a quiet beginning to a brooding middle to a pounding finale.
#3 - Garden of Light - In the Absence of Truth
Aspect: Power
Given its amazing climax, it's tempting to name "Threshold of Transformation" as my favorite Isis album ender. That said, "Garden of Light" is a more complete song and thus, gets the nod from me. While the final part is transcendent*, the best part of the song is middle, where Isis runs through the same chord progression three times, ramping up the intensity each time. There may be other Isis songs that are louder, but no section is more powerful than that one. This was a song that Isis would not often play live, which seems to reflect the difficulty in bringing that level of intensity every night.
*that ending might be the second or third best example of building and releasing tension** that I can think of, mostly because of how you wait and wait for the main theme to repeat and then it finally does at the end.
**stay tuned for #1 in a later post
#2 - The Beginning and The End - Oceanic
Aspect: Command
In baseball, you'll often hear the terms "control" and "command" when scouts talk about pitchers. Control is typically used to say that the pitcher has the ability to throw strikes consistently. Command, on the other hand, says that pitchers have the ability to hit the precise spots they are aiming for. I originally had control written as the key aspect about this song, but I soon realized that wasn't enough. This is probably the most precise and well put together song that Isis ever wrote. What's more is that it is the first track off of the first album of what I would consider their "modern" period - the period in which the term post-metal was coined to describe among others Isis. I can't even imagine the experience of being a metal fan in 2002, putting in this CD* for the first time, and being blown away.
*Yes, people did that then
#1 - So Did We - Panopticon
Aspect: Beauty
From an academic perspective, "The Beginning and The End" is probably Isis' finest work. However, since this exercise is clearly not academic, I am choosing "So Did We" as the top Isis song. The main difference between these two songs for me is the ending. While "The Beginning and The End" goes out on a very strong note, "So Did We" goes to a new level in combining the efforts of all five musicians. I've seen what Isis does referred to as a "wall of noise" a few places, and this is probably the best example of that. The closing section sums up the feelings of isolation and separation better than any words could.
No comments:
Post a Comment