Isis - Panopticon

(05 Jun 2011)

By nature I find it really hard to agree with the mainstream opinion. Constantly do I find myself making presumptions of whether I'll like a band on whether their name sounds mainstream or whether they get mentioned a lot by "normal" people. I don't consider myself as being a hipster, but I have inevitably been compared to one. And no album had made my hipster gland flare up as much as Panopticon did. It just wouldn't stop getting praise from everyone, everywhere. It was sickening. I just wanted to listen to it and tell everyone "HA! You're wrong! Here's a tl;dr list of all the reasons why this album sucks." I mean, it was compared to classical music both on Pitchfork and on its excessively long Wikipedia page! Obviously, I had to give it a listen, to justify my bad review.

I was expecting something pleasant to listen to, spacey, but ultimately very bland. So I was quite surprised when I heard the opener "So Did We". Its atmosphere was completely different from anything I was expecting. The song did not sound grandiose at all. In fact, it sounded tiny, like if you're a satellite hovering over the hills and roads, and they look like slowly moving images.The same atmosphere holds on for the entirety of the album, and it's a very surprising and interesting new point of view.

At first I really disliked the perfectly crisp and clear production, but eventually it grew on me an I realized how some of its subtle touches really help the atmosphere. The songwriting is quite good, the not-as-mixed-down-as-people-say vocals coming in just the right moments to remind you of the human element in this album, and the songs themselves moving in waves, giving a lot of space to each instrument.

Sadly, the album is not without its faults. First of all, it makes me very boring when I describe it. Second, despite the way the subtle elements of the album all add up to one helluva (I added that in there so as not to make people doze off) listening experience, aside from the very nice soundscapes and nice changes in dynamics, well, there's not that much in the album. People might think "Wow! Now that's someone with a good taste in music" and you become a Respectful Person when you listen to it, but there is not much underlying structure, nor anything that will to make the songs any better after the first listen. As to its comparison to classical music? Well, if you consider sitting down in a comfortable chair with your eyes closed and making maestro-like hand motions listening to classical music, then yes. My conclusion is that Panopticon is a very good album, not an interesting one.

Standout tracks:

So Did We
In Fiction
Altered Course