Known for using their classical training as a musical melting pot, If Man Is Five has always toyed with dynamic contrast and stylistic diversity, balancing both beauty and brutality in their music effortlessly, much like their aptly named new album. In fact, this release is the apex of that dualism realized. With incredible production value and dramatic instrumentation, the musicality and passion has never been more evident.
Brace yourself to have songs like the dissonant “Chaos,” about the Iraq War, standing directly opposed to the hauntingly beautiful madrigal, “Dearest,” take you across an expansive emotional spectrum. The album is not only musically moving but also intellectually stimulating, with songs like “Postcranial Debris” based on “The Lottery,” a short story written by Shirley Jackson over fifty years ago, or “I Hand You My Universe and You Live Me,” named after a quote from Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s Diary. The poetic imagery in the heart-wrenching “Temperance” and the paroxysm in the epic “Transgressions” will also have you reeling with intensity. After five years in the making, this collection of powerful songs stands to be the group’s Magnum Opus.
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