Way back at the beginning of this strange century the Books emerged with a sound that seemed to reflect the frenzy of our times. Appearing amidst the height of post-rock and toward the end of glitch the duo of guitarist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong combined elements from both genres into a wholly original sound. Mixing bizarre spoken word and vocal samples with original instrumentation the band's sound bordered at times on aleatory, but was too tightly constructed to be. It sounded like chaos, sure, but it was controlled chaos. Their cut and paste compositions mirrored the speed and information overload of the world we were living in, slowing on occasion long enough to focus on individuals caught in the midst of the whirlwind full of fear, longing and sometimes wonderment. Although their music clearly grew out of the duo's advanced understanding of experimental composition, it never sounded academic or clinical, instead, more often than not, there was a sublime quality in their work that allowed listeners to feel connected to their humanity amidst the post-modern insanity. It was also, at times, darkly hilarious, given the duo's choice of vocal samples."The Way Out" is the band's fourth album and their first release in five years, and for the first time The Books sound less like a reflection of our times and more like one big in-joke between Zammuto and de Jong. New Age self-help tapes appear to be the primary source of inspiration for the band here, which greatly diminishes the appeal of the album over time. Ramblings about consciousness and energy centers of the body are suspect at best, annoying as hell at worst. Either way once the joke (at least I hope it is a joke) has played out over the first couple of listens there isn't much to warrant repeat plays. In the past the band sampled various vocal snippets throughout a song to create meaning between disparate sources, here songs are often dominated entirely by the same spoken word source throughout. "Chain of Missing Links" consists of a single new age guru talking about who knows what before the band edits his final sentence to make what is basically a zombie joke. "Group Autogenics I" does combine sound sources, but given the sameness of themes concerning new age meditation and consciousness it's hard to understand why the band even bothered cutting and pasting vocals for the piece.
Some tracks feature original recorded vocals like "Beautiful People," a religious hymn about an irrational number in trigonometry. I'm sure this shit will kill at M.I.T., but I don't pretend to begin to understand it. The idea of a religious hymn to math is kind of funny, and certainly there is plenty of fodder here for a discussion about reason and spirituality, but frustratingly the piece feels like a missed opportunity. In the past, The Books achieved transcendence by building tension that would break against moments of pure musical beauty that was usually punctuated by a well placed vocal sample. Here the band stifles those moments with either all too clever lyrics like "Beautiful People," or obnoxious spoken word samples like "Chain of Missing Links."
Musically the band's compositions are pleasant enough, but there is nothing here as inspired as their work on "Food For Thought" and "The Lemon of Pink." "I Didn't Know That" and "A Cold Freezin' Night" certainly sound like The Books, but they also sound kind of like some grad student's thesis performance in experimental composition who has a grand appreciation of Les Claypool, and I don't mean that in a good way, not that it could ever be taken in a good way. The band incorporates more original "sung songs" on this album than in the past, which does little to improve matters. With the exception of "Beautiful People" the album's other original vocal tracks "We Bought the Flood" "All You Need Is A Wall," and "Free Translator" are so subdued and, frankly, normal that there would be no reason to suspect that they were Books songs if you heard these tracks outside of the context of the album.
Not everything is a wash. "I Am Who I Am," reminds one of what a good Books song sounds like. Sliced and diced spoken word samples come in and out of the piece as the band lays down a propulsive electronic soundscape that verges on techno before some crazed speaker starts screaming about who is he. The band punctuates his rant by fitting their beats to the rhythm of his speech. It's pretty inspired stuff, and sticks out all the more because of what is, sadly, the mediocrity of the rest of the album.
I feel bad about having to give "The Way Out" such a poor review. At their best The Books blend humor, intelligence, art and humanity into a seamless whole. Unfortunately they seem to have lost the script here, instead focusing on quick and easy jokes about a new age culture that needs no help in being hilarious. At one time The Books were a reflection of our times, and in turn each of us, with "The Way Out" they appear to be as guilty of navel gazing as the ridiculous subjects of their spoken word samples.
Wheeler says: "What is this? Are you fucking with me?" After a few more minutes...."I'm vetoing this. That is it for the 'let's fuck with Wheeler moment."
"Beautiful People" unofficial video
"A Cold Freezin' Night"
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