Naked Lunch are back with the Austrian bands first new album since 2013's All Is Fever, In the space in between band leader Oliver Welter fought and won a two-year battle with Cancer, during which time his third child was born. They have shuffled the line-up a bit, so this time round Naked Lunch are Oliver Welter, Alex Jezdinsky and Boris Hauf it was produced and mixed by Wolfgang Lehmann at his own studio.
The album opens with To All And Everyone I Love that has the feel of a piano ballad for the Xmas season, without being an Xmas song, this has some good reflections on life, it builds with Rolling Stone style Sympathy backing vocals, he wants to raise a toast to all the people he knows, so raise a glass and join in the spirit of this song.
Only Hollow is slow brief reflections that you only seem to appear on Hollow Ground. We Could Be Beautiful if only we were given the chance, what could you imagine life being, if all you hold dear disappeared, sparse reflections on how cruel life can sometimes be.
Go Away is a slow deliberate song for purging the poisons and diseases from your body any which way you can, this has a sad edge with sketches of all the suffering he's been through. Bring On The Lights has a funereal paced piano with swirling noises, like you've got the sound of the MRI machine stuck in your head, reflective thoughts and hopes that the light will return, you'll be on an upwards path once more.
All The Same an acoustic strum for life going down the drain, all the aches and burnt skin, fighting to survive everything intact, ready to ask the mirror if you really are still the fairest of them all.
Blackbird adds a dance beat to the spare reflections of why you feel like a Blackbird, not quite a cadaverous crow, but looking for answers for how you ended up this ill, with thoughts of how you behaved while you were still love, with weird glitchy synths pulsing away.
Come Into My Arms for some comfort when you have despaired of everything happening to you, the only place for some solace is in his arms, the sparse beauty of this plea for help from those closest in your darkest hour.
Fuck My Senses is a short bitter twisted song for what cancer drugs do your brain and feelings, this would work with some of Cathal Coughlan's songs about his own battle with the demon cancer. If This Is The Last Song You Can Hear is a bleak salvo from someone on the precipice of death, trying to make an anthem for anyone else on the same precipice, somehow this is both despairing and hopeful at the same time, here's hoping this isn't the last song you hear, but that skronking jazz sax freak out needs hearing.
I Saw that trumpet player ready to lead us into the gentle ambient landscape, exploding in several directions, like your mind has splintered, stark visions of blood in the fields, all the killing and distress. Love Don't Love Him Anymore is the feelings of abandonment amid the pain and suffering of a deadly disease, this is the opposite of the wind-blown epic answer to Love Don't Live Here Anymore, he hopes he can help you to stop all the self-harm and find love once more, he shows more emotion than Jimmy Nail ever could, this is a bit of a tearjerker.
As I Lay Down Dying is a bleak plea for visitors to try to help him through the darkest moments when he thinks he is about to die, each acoustic guitar note filled with sorrow and yearning for a cure, a solution that doesn't involve actually dying. The album closes with Going Underground a slow funereal ballad for the soon to be buried, angelic choir and slow drum beat leads this plea for a last-minute reprieve for this warrior straight from hell.
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