Can anyone truly describe the sound of The Black Heart Procession? At times there is an audible melancholy that seems to wrap itself in the music, and at other times the band produces a bit more of a "poppy" feel, all the while still maintaining something more dark. Pointless as it is, in an attempt to describe the group's style or some common musical theme that dominates the finely crafted songs from The Black Heart Procession, some people still try to pin a genre onto the group without describing their sound in any way, shape, or form. Finding themselves on a new record label with the unfortunate dissolution of long running and much lamented Touch & Go Records, Pall Jenkins, Tobias Nathaniel, and the rest of their collaborators return with the aptly titled Six (seeing as it is their sixth full-length album) for Temporary Residence.
Whether the opening piano tinkling of "When You Finish Me" and its simple arresting vocals capture your imagination or you need the more pop moments of "Witching Stone" and its stick in your head for days melody to finally drag your interest in the record, Six is absolutely brimming with quality compositions with nary a poor track to be found or heard for that matter (though "Suicide" seems awfully out of place at times when I listen to the album, while at others it somehow works). Jenkins' vocal performance is definitely in top form and matches his compositions just about perfectly, adding just the plaintive quality that is required to tug at listeners' emotional palette from the high and low (that have a rich, warm sound) vocals of "Liar's Ink" to the eerie beauty of "Iri Sulu." With the overall exemplary quality of Six, the album smoothly rolls through its thirteen tracks of dark indie pop and gives listeners quite a bit of ear candy through infectious melodies and haunting instrumentation that stays with you long after the closing notes of "Iri Sulu" resonate to their last.
Trying to forget about my personal appreciation for the music that The Black Heart Procession produce is a difficult proposition because I find what they write to be so affecting and in some ways profound in the execution, but with the lack of a legitimate reason for keeping up pretenses of complete objectivity. The only concern that I have with Six is that people should hear this album. Jenkins, Nathaniel, and company produce a supremely affecting album that sounds as if it is full of longing, lost love, a deep sense of sadness, and just a general feeling of vast emotion. Six reminds me a great deal of my favorite record from The Black Heart Procession - their second album, the also fittingly titled 2 - in its musical scope while still being a creature completely of its own devices. Six is quite simply a work of beauty and is without a doubt a superb example of the band's abilities. The melodies, the dark mood, the compositional quality of the songs, and the excellent performances by the musicians all provide the ingredients for this excellent record by The Black Heart Procession.
