Artist: Dave Pen
Title: The Week Ending Forever
Genre: Alt Rock
Release Date: 4th March 2022
Label: JAR Records
Album Review
Clearly recent album ‘Abran Wish And The Light Party’ by ARCHIVE and BIRDPEN mainstay and generally creative fidget DAVE PEN, hasn’t quite scratched the itch, as this EP appears unexpectedly like an afterthought. But it represents so much more than that. Whereas the album dealt with a concept and told a more abstract story, ‘The Week Ending Forever’ is a highly personal and timely musing on the horrendous effect the last two years has had on mental health. While some explore global conspiracies or vent spleen at government failure, others find it cathartic to ignore the whole tragic episode and continue as normal - DAVE PEN clearly needs to miniaturise the experience, find his voice and deal with how things affected him as an individual, and how he has coped, or not coped, at various junctures. Recorded spontaneously over two days, and with no prior notes, lyrics or even musical bare bones to arrange, this is quite the journey.
‘10mg’ is a brutally honest unfolding catalogue of ailments, and its hazy, lazy psychedelia belies a creeping anxiety, the jittery shadow of some hidden dread that comes with any mental collapse. It’s like being awake but forced to watch one of your dreams. Unsettling. ‘Motorise’ seems to hang in the air like a long-drawn-out breath, and ‘Song For The Birds’ uses a child’s voice to spectacular effect, filling a void with beauty and fragility, all filtered through a gauze of distance that comes through brain fog. ‘F.R.H.G’ is a panic-attack put to music, an urgent mantra to run and hide and freak out, ‘Life Is But A Screen’ a softly plucked lament of confusion and despair. And ‘All Of The Time’ rounds things off with a bounce and sense of optimism that comes with having worked through, if not resolved, some of the issues that have been raised here. A sense not so much of dismissal, but a barely concealed ‘how did I get through that?’ making this journey both frightfully intense and personal, but also warmly communal, the need to share and listen and be heard essentially how all of us get through things.
This EP represents not only an important snapshot of recent tragic times, but stands as a testament to anyone at any time feeling lost and alone and confused, working through troubles with sleep and medication, insomnia, excess or abstinence, isolation or sharing. It’s the human spirit, whatever that exactly is, for all to see - fragile, complex, unbreakable.
Tracklist
01. 10mg
02. Motorise
03. Song For The Birds
04. F.R.H.G
05. Life Is But A Screen
06. All Of The Time
Line-up
Dave Pen
Website
https://www.facebook.com/davepen11
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
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