Girl at the Rock Shows

I have a huge, once-in-a-lifetime show tonight (you’ll be able to read all about it tomorrow), so my head isn’t in the game. I’m too excited to take my usual nap, too amped to work, and can’t focus on much of anything right now. I feel like I’m out of my body at this point, and I need something to bring me back down to earth. I’m hoping that checking out some new music does that, and luckily for me, Icarus Phoenix just dropped their latest album, ‘I Should Have Known The Things You Never Said’, today. I’m familiar with this band and their previous songs have always hit me just right. Let’s see if they continue that trend with this new ten-song album.

It takes a little bit for the opening track, “The Thing You Never Told Me,” to kick in. This song has a short ambient intro that builds and grows until Icarus Phoenix’s bombastic sound finally takes over after about twenty-five seconds. I love the lead-up because it feels like the sonic version of anticipation and gets you ready to arrive and get lost in this band’s world. The vocals in this opening track are smooth and beautiful, but there’s a raw emotion that comes through with every word. Think Bright Eyes but with a little bit more Chutzpah; Cursive with a little more zing. You could think of a lot of things throughout this opening track, but as the song played, all I could think about was how I felt like my feet were finally touching the ground again for the first time today.

“Live. Give. Lose. Grow.” has a slight twang to it that I wasn’t quite expecting. This second song is quite a bit darker than the opening one. I mean that with the overall sound but also with the lyrical content of the track. I won’t give it all away, but, as the band says, “When confronted with major life changes, we find out who we are at our core.”. That’s the theme of this album, and I feel like that message really reigns supreme throughout this second track. “Live. Give. Lose. Grow.” is an anthemic but emotional epic piece of art that will instantly capture your heart and soul in all of the right ways.

There’s an intensity to “Live. Give. Lose. Grow.” that instantly drops as the album moves onto “High Tide”. I love the drastic shift in mood and love how “High Tide” has more of a folksy influence behind it. Again, I was floored by the emotion that comes through with everything happening in this third song. Although it’s one of the shortest songs on this album, “High Tide” was one of those songs I had to listen to a couple of times before moving on purely because it made me feel so many things as it played. You know me, I’m not going to give away all of the lyrics, but there are many one-liners in this song that will get stuck in your head for days to come.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit lost as “In The Blood” played through and, no matter how many times I played through, I couldn’t get unlost. There’s something mesmerizing and perfectly fluid about the instrumentation in this song that makes it almost meditative meaning I don’t have much to say about it but don’t take that to mean this is a throwaway song because it definitely is not.

The vocals in “Doctor! Doctor!” are strong but keep with Icarus Phoenix’s signature calming sound. Very much in the vein of “High Tide”, there’s a strong folk influence in this song that comes off as bright instrumentation, but the vocals keep this song feeling somewhat subdued and dark. That balance of bright and dark is something a lot of bands like this try and fail to pull off, but Icarus Phoenix does it so effortlessly. Out of all of the songs thus far, this is the one with lyrics that will make your eyes tear up, so brace yourself. They are touching, dark, raw, and beautiful.

“Hatillo 2” takes the darkness out of Icarus Phoenix’s sound and leaves you with another mesmerizingly beautiful track that will, again, have you lost. This one definitely feels like a nod to Bright Eyes, from the instrumentation to the vocal style, while keeping Icarus Phoenix’s signature style in the forefront. It’s a slow and steady song that plays off of the emotions felt in “Doctor! Doctor!” so well. It became clear to me during this song that the band paid particular attention to the order of tracks on this album just because of how you could feel the emotions grow with the way these two songs, in particular, play off of each other.

“Painting” is one of the longest songs on this album at just under six minutes, but the storytelling of the song helps hide the length, for lack of a better term. Another slow and steady song, this is the kind of track where you start picturing the story in your head. As the words drifted and danced by, I could see the characters of the story playing out the lines happening. That being said, I wouldn’t say that this song is cinematic. It lacks the same amount of power that comes with a cinematic track, but I love that about this song. It shows the sheer power and talent that Icarus Phoenix has with words and the way they craft their instrumentation to highlight the words while also not being ignored.

We finally get out of the dark and moody with “When it’s time to go (I don’t know if it is) .”I’ll be honest: I liked the dark and moody, but I love how well Icarus Phoenix can pull off both sides of the spectrum, shown by the upbeat bop that is this eighth song. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still emotion and thought in this song, but there’s also this bouncy beat that will have you tapping your toes along within the first few seconds. There’s also an unbelievable amount of power that comes through here. “When it’s time to go (I don’t know if it is)” is definitely a stand-out track for me on a truly gorgeous album.

Honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Neva Dinova’s name on one of these tracks because all of these songs remind me of that band. “The Sword and Harp” is the second to last track on this touching album and features Neva Dinova and Corbino. I honestly have no clue who Corbino is (but I will be digging into them tomorrow), but I know Neva Dinova, and to hear that familiar influence in a song on this album made my heart so full. It told me that I was on track with some of the influences I mentioned earlier in this post and that I was in good company with my love for Icarus Phoenix. This song seems to split the difference between the raw emotion of “Hatillo 2” and the more danceable “When it’s time to go (I don’t know if it is)” so perfectly. My favorite lines of words on this album come from this song: “We confront sadness and dance away depression .”Just let that line sink in a little bit and try to tell me that it doesn’t make you feel all of the things.

“Kanashimi” is the epic track I have been waiting for. This final song is lengthy at nearly nine minutes, but it goes through a whole trove of emotions within those nine minutes and feels like the band knows that they just sent you on a rollercoaster of emotions with the previous tracks, so this is their offering of a way to peacefully slide you back into the real world of dread. It’s truly a gorgeous track full of lush instrumentation and exquisite layers of sounds and voices. I may be getting ready to go see a legendary metal band tonight in a legendary room where there will be no crying and no real sense of emotion other than excitement, but I will absolutely be thinking of this album from Icarus Phoenix and this final song in particular until said legendary band hits the downbeat of their set.

‘I Should Have Known The Things You Never Said’ from Icarus Phoenix is truly a stunning and emotional piece of art. Like the band says (and I quoted earlier), “When confronted with major life changes, we find out who we are at our core.” Let this album help you find your core. Let it dig up the deepest and darkest corners of your soul while also giving you a chance to cool the fire down and let everything just wash away. This album is a trip that I will be taking again and again and again.

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