Music and storytelling have always gone hand-in-hand, something that seems to have been forgotten in this modern age of gap-year troubadours and digital manipulators. The latter are more likely to just tell us that bad things are wrong, while the former how sad they are because they have split up with their girlfriend. But The Room’s roots are from a time when such oratory skills were more prevalent, and with their new album The Telling they take such a narrative approach to new heights.
An album, a song cycle of folkloric intrigue, tales of East European myth, a folk horror sonic delight, a post-punk revelation, a chorus-less (in the traditional sense at least) narrative, and a possible screenplay, The Telling is many things. But mostly, it is the sound of an established band doing something really interesting, not to mention exciting, with the usual pop and rock form.
Across 11 songs, Dave Jackson leads The Room, and we, the listeners, into the dark corners of the Black Forest, through ancient landscapes and into a different time. There, we meet a mysterious shapeshifter, wolves, witchfinders, and ravens and hear whispers of a love affair between Baba Yaga’s adopted daughter and Grendel’s long-lived brother.
Of course, musically, we are in for a treat. This is music befitting a band that shared stages with The Fall, The Birthday Party, and Tom Verlaine and was favorably compared to Echo and the Bunnymen back in the day – all bands known for their creative taste and originality. and so it is here.
Here, we find them spinning deft and dark post-punk grooves, infectious alt-pop hooks, squalling rock bursts, and shimmering indie salvos. We even get a sense of the more progressive realms in their forms and structures. It’s the perfect beguiling music for the intriguing tales being told.
The Telling is a revelation, an album that reminds bands, even those that have had a hand in the game for a long time, that there is always somewhere new to take things, always something new to do with the format. It doesn’t even require a radical rethink of accepted sounds; it just needs a vivid imagination, a sense of bravery, a healthy disregard for anything to do with fashion or fads, and a willingness to boldly go (if you’ll excuse me splitting infinitives for pop cultural effect.)
In short, musical evolution and the future of music just need to be left in the right pair of hands. The Room is exactly that pair(s) of hands.
