(Self-released, digital)
On Saint Albums’ latest record, Before You Still, creator Bay Campbell steps away from the electronic trappings of Luminous Crush, her long-running “bluegrass outlaw country post-punk psychedelic fusion indie dream pop searing rock metal and whatnot” project with Laura Molinelli. (Indeed, I’m pretty sure that across Luminous Crush’s six albums released since 2016, the pair have checked off every genre in that mouthful.)
A completely analog pop-rock-folk-etc. album, Before You Still touches on one of the most famous koans of Zen Buddhist practice: the sound of one hand clapping. A thought experiment that has no precise resolution, it explores nonduality, a state of being that unifies all dual entities, such as self/other and body/mind.
Campbell seems to ponder this on “Morse Code Solo,” a shrouded groove with slinky synth and bass winding around the lyrical idea that “Maybe it’s all the same thing.” She investigates her own songwriting as a way in, questioning her use of “the same chord and a melody,” tuning (“E A D G B E”), and frequency.
“Maybe it’s all been laid out in front of me / One hand clapping out a tempo / One hand clapping out a Morse code solo,” she sings, perhaps ironically, in two-part harmony.
As an eclecticist , Campbell balances tried-and-true pop sensibilities with experimentation. This makes her projects a little hard to pin down, and the tracks on Before You Still are as varied as anything from her canon.
Opener “Glide” blends whispery vocals, acoustic guitar and stubbed beats, a little bit like Pinback or something else out of the late ’90s/early aughts indie boom. Subsequent cut “Nebraska” ups the energy, sharpens the edges, adds synth, and lands somewhere near the earnest and slightly unhinged territory of Australian weirdos Architecture in Helsinki.
Some of Before You Still has a raw quality sometimes present on Luminous Crush records. Tracks such as “I Do” brim with immediacy and an in-the-room quality, as if you’re hearing it just as Campbell is creating it. She gives the drums a little bit of slack, a synth snakes through with an air of spontaneity, and Campbell’s vocals sound like they’re coming from just down the hall.
Campbell told Seven Days via email that “music for me is like trying to swim for shore.” She didn’t elaborate beyond that, but we can imagine that the shore is a feeling of completion or safety, a focal point, something to which you must strive while set adrift.
Maybe the waves and the sandy beach upon which they crash are all the same thing.
Before You Still is available at saintalbums.bandcamp.com and on major streaming services.
This article appears in The Connections Issue.
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