All My CDs, pt 92: October Project

October Project - October Project

Here we have yet another self-titled album. I can forgive this one because the music is so good, but I maintain that it isn’t a good way to name albums.

This is the second-best October Project album, but still a favorite. The themes I see in it are a bit less spiritual than those I see in Falling Farther In, but the songs approach their subject matter from the same broad-minded, idealistic viewpoint, and there are a few of those deeply mystical moments as well. A Lonely Voice particularly captures some of that energy: “In a desert where no one can explain / You tell me God is dancing in the rain.”

If there’s another theme I can see connecting many of the songs, it’s loss and acceptance. Wall of Silence, Return to Me, and Paths of Desire seem to acknowledge the pain of separation, but embrace the surrender of control required to endure that separation with serenity. They say, in as many words but never directly: “if you love something, let it go.”

Return to Me, in particular, says this, but in a potent demonstration of music’s unique potential as an art form, it only says so if you can listen to both the words and the sound. Reading the lyrics straight off the liner notes, there is desire and loss and the pain of separation, but no acceptance. In each refrain, the speaker repeats “Return to me, return to me.” It looks like a plaintive expression of need - or a controlling command. But when the words are sung, they’re in a sweet and light tone, and the instrumental accompaniment is gentle and fluid. It is then that the refrain becomes a request, or perhaps a humble prayer, with no grasping or need for control.

Perhaps this is one of the many answers to the question I’ve found myself repeating throughout this review project: what is it with songs whose words convey one mood, but whose music conveys another, often contradictory mood? What’s with happy-sounding sad songs, and sad-sounding angry songs, or other combinations? Going by this one, the appeal is that such songs play with the complex and difficult spiritual and emotional quandaries that plague our emotional lives. Acceptance of loss feels contradictory, but is necessary lest we constantly pine for what we want or numb ourselves entirely to love and joy.

Speaking of love and joy...

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