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I have listened to few albums as compelling as this. I want to find those elusive units of the English language capable of conveying it, or if need be, to birth glorious new words the same way Matt and Isom have breathed life into new sounds. Mellifluous melodies overflow into one another in a confluence of pitch poetry. Ambient electronoise is juxtaposed with incandescent chords in only as much disagreement as inhaling and exhaling.
At first I enjoyed Matt and Isom quite ordinarily. It was quality background music. Tunes for looking out of bus windows and for writing papers. Default sound. Soon, though, I was stolen. Just lying on my back and letting the headphones stream, I took no other demands but this invitation to departure. There, the messages of each track quietly unwound themselves like envelopes daily slipped under a door, bearing a balance of urgency and subtlety. Before I knew it, I wasn't lying on the couch anymore; I was swimming in a tunnel of sound.
Matt and Isom reach into the creepy synthspiration and meandering vocal sensibilities of Radiohead, match pair it with delicate acoustic and piano gateways like Copeland, and set that and more to the harmony of skies parting à la Matt and Isom. Truthfully, August Jesus Depression is nothing too progressive at its core, but it wears the soft skin of adventure. In "Transamerica" a swelling hum of soft piano emerges and dissolves, teasing the ear to come out and play. The more frenetic "French Estate 9/8" begins only with piano chords under vocal cords but approaches the end with a complicated wiring of bass, beats, synth.
August Jesus Depression is repetitious, in the way that meditative mantras can be repetitious. It is nonsensical, in the way that dreams can be nonsensical. It is overwhelming, in the way that emotion can be overwhelming. Seamlessly, sweepingly arranged and produced, this album sings of hope and spirituality, theory and reality, tension and submission in a surge of echoes and ambiance that will absorb you ever more as you allow yourself to absorb it.