After six years of tumultuous lineup changes and stylistic shifts, Southeast Engine somehow emerged with an album full of stunning arrangements and resonant lyrics.
The Athens rock band's seemingly endless stint at 3 Elliott Studio has proved absolutely worthwhile. Song for song, Coming To Terms With Gravity is a classic album, detailing harrowing existential crises and day-to-day reality in the context of the band's strongest songwriting to date. Add meticulous recording and mixing by new guitarist Josh Antonuccio and some glorious mastering by Chris Weibel, and what we have here is a masterpiece.
Adam Remnant's lyrical journey reaches from heaven to hell but mostly inhabits that confusion-prone middleground known as Planet Earth.
The record begins with I'm Never Sure
in which Remnant wants to explain the way he's feeling, like a film is reeling through my mind. Confusion is apparent, and things stay murky throughout the next few songs. Remnant chides someone -maybe himself -You don't know what you want and admits, I try not to lie but I find it hard to tell the truth all the time.
But by the time he's through navigating aimless collegiate debauchery (Undergrad), confronting a best friend (Forced to Believe) and losing a stare-down with God (Holy Ghost), the closing title track finds Remnant at peace, or at least on his way there.
Musically, the album treads louder territory than in the past. Three songs from the first half -Photos of Nothing
the epic Up To You and the Dylanesque Try -rock harder than anything in the Southeast Engine catalog. Yet the quietest number, Coming To Terms With Gravity
is the most adventurous, draping eerie double-tracked vocals and a cello over Leo DeLuca's inventive, spare percussion.
It's a spectacular ending to a transcendent album, one that finds one of Ohio's finest bands operating at the peak of its powers.
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Chris Deville
