The Vacant Vastness of a Transforming Sound

The Clientele’s lead vocalist, Alasdair MacLean, makes magic with everything that makes I Am Not There Anymore what it is. The words the album uses as its title fit as nicely as a clean pair of new shoes, because this band’s been behind beauty for the better part of two decades now. The trip this one takes around the spheres of artistry, however, is wholly different from what precedes it. 

This latest attempt at greatness from The Clientele really can be considered just one big mash-up of music, each song continuing where the last leaves off. But that doesn’t mean every song is the same. On an entirely alternate chord, nothing’s constant — MacLean even utters these lyrics on “Blue Over Blue”: “None of these tracks lead where they should,” and that’s the picture that needs to be captured.

“Fables of the Silverlink” should immediately attract all the little drums in everybody’s ears. Its sound is something out of the Romantic Era; that’s what its feel can be characterized as. If the pubs of those days, or even the ones in which Shakespeare hung around in, had speakers, this track would certainly receive rich playing time. Beginning with the voice of a viola, there are some elements of contemporary alt-rock to it. MacLean moans like a lone man standing by the sea during a storm, but he’s somewhat monotone all the while. It lets the album leap off to a fresh start. 

A jaded piano finds its way onto multiple entries here. “Radial B” and “Radial E” have plenty of its presence, and both are formal. The former creates something magnificent, as if it’s recounting the genesis of a human life, and then becomes a montage in that way. A cohesive celesta monopolizes most of the latter’s minutes, and it swiftly transitions into what a child’s lullaby might sound like. 

The percussion of I Am Not There Anymore is stellar. It stands out on a few occasions and that galactic piano returns all the times it’s needed most, as well. A snarling guitar infects the spirit of particular tracks. “Dying in May,” is possessed by the tinkling sound of falling fairy dust. So variety becomes The Clientele’s ultimate superpower. MacLean sings, “I could walk all the way to the moon” on “Garden Eye Mantra,” and his delivery of those words is nothing short of brilliant.

I Am Not There Anymore has no definitive identity, and its form ranges in shape, but that’s the true mastery of it. Even up against The Clientele’s countless other critically acclaimed projects, it glows as its own, and it truly means wonders for everything that’s to come next.