Review
Planning For Burial
Untitled

Do you listen to music that reflects your mood, or do you listen to music to alter just how you are feeling? A simple question really but one that means serious implications for people’s listening habits, it certainly goes back to what Rob Gordon says in High Fidelity,

“What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

Certainly, one could easily substitute other more positive adjectives in place of misery; but, hopefully, the association is vivid enough for you. Still, this conundrum may never be successfully solved and no records never really give you any insight into how this circular narrative seemingly works despite their attempts to do just that; I mean sure certain records might bring a smile to your face and surely some scientist somewhere might be able to prove that certain songs can affect a person’s serotonin levels but that is all bunk, and the scientist might as well be arguing the “chicken or the egg” trap.

So, here I am listening to the entire released discography of Planning For Burial with the intention of writing a review of the Untitled single by disproving the hopes of solving this riddle (while getting into the mood by delving into said back catalog… oh the ironing is delicious); instead Untitled further muddies the water by enveloping me in this strange aural haze that is so easy to get lost in the dreamy undulations of sound that emanate from the two tracks (three if you purchase the uber exclusive CD that will make you cooler than sliced Beatles if you own one, so those who are desperate to be a party of the nerdy music literati should get on it ASAP before all the Europeans show how much further along they are than us barbaric far westerners). You will not be able to resist the harsh malaise that “I Hope You’ll Pick Me Out” projects (having some of the heaviest moments from this outfit yet) even as the piece slowly degenerates from a lively bombast to the quiet remains of a shattered soundscape because I certainly have a hard time moving forward off this track (it took 6 repeats before I forcibly broke the habit of automatically hitting the back button), but the mellow musings of “Annick” are just as certain to draw you in as its companion (seriously love the lonely sounding guitar lead here playing against the piano).

If you are not one of the obsessive maniacs who rushed out to get this on CD, (fret not, it is available online for a small fee) then you will probably be left salivating for more than the two lush sounding pieces from this release; and frankly, I cannot blame you because Untitled is good but just so damn short that it might leave you craving more Planning For Burial in which to drown your emotions or worries because somehow, it works both ways for me.