Hi everyone. Bigthony Headtano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. And it's time for a review of this new Colin Stetson album, The love it took to leave you.

Here we have a new album from Canadian saxophonist all around horn player composer Mr. Colin Stetson, one of the country's most unique talents to rise up in the past decade, not only due to his revolutionary approach to minimalist music, using these continuous breathing techniques while playing the sax, as well as experimental microphone placements when recording these pieces and performances, creating these winding, hypnotic compositions which are more layered and detailed than you might think, considering that all of these sounds are being generated by just one guy. Because you not only have the arpeggios and melodies coming out of the instrument itself, but the sound of Colin breathing comes into play in some of these pieces, the mechanics of the instrument, opening and closing, clicking and clacking. On top of that, these like moaning ghost notes he'll work into his playing as well as he's breathing through the sax.

And this unique style has not only made for a lot of interesting records for Colin, but made him pretty in demand when it's come to soundtrack work in recent years, as well, as he has contributed some really great stuff to the music of The Menu as well as Hereditary. Also that Martha Stewart dramatization that she recently commented on not liking the music from, actually saying she wished there was a more hip hop-centric soundtrack. He also did music for that botched Adult Swim Uzumaki animated adaptation, which is kind of funny too. Colin also gets the occasional feature or two for a sax solo on a random album.

For a guy whose music is most definitely out there sometimes and not easy listening, he really is all over the place. And with this new record over here, he is once again wading into the very dark, experimental and tortured weeds. Which means if you are starting out with Colin's music, it might be better to begin with a record like New History Warfare Volume 2, where you can really get a sense of what he's all about, with it being displayed in a very simple, straightforward and direct way. There was also the album he dropped last year, which I think is one of his most accessible works yet as well, not only due to the great vocal features across the record, but this really cool poem that ties the entire project together thematically too.

But yes, in contrast with that, The love it took to leave you heads back in much darker and more out there territory, and also breaks things down a bit to bringing things back straight to the saxophone. No collaborators, no extra voices, nothing like that. It's really Colin taking what has worked for him on past albums and finding ways to just make it sound bigger, more detailed, grimier, and sometimes more ambitious too. And there are plenty of moments on this album where he succeeds at exactly that, while also getting a message across that makes it clear that this album very much centers around a separation of some sort. Which is, yeah, clearly communicated in the title, but also in just the mournful tone of the music on this record, the turbulent flow of the tracklist too.

We have a great opening title track on the album, where Colin more or less is working with his usual mix of speedy, repetitive, entrancing arpeggios with slow, soaring lead melodies melting into them, kind of coming in and out like waves. And then on top of that, a lot of atmosphere surrounding the sound of the saxophone, too. There's a lot of natural echo throughout some of these recordings coming from whatever massive space he's doing these performances in. But yeah, overall it's a great track, as usual, Colin. Just a bit bigger and brighter.

But I think what really makes some of the writing and performances on this record special is revealed on deeper cuts like "The Six", where he is getting some absolutely insane sounds out of that saxophone, lots of bassy, fluttering honks, wailing tones, and he's really capturing the recordings of those valves slapping, opening, and closing in a way that comes across very rhythmic. They just sound absolutely huge. And I mean, I'm not just enjoying this track, though, for its musical appeal. I'm also getting a lot of enjoyment out of it because the entire thing sounds like a giant bumblebee fighting an elephant that occasionally is like stomping on it with giant wooden boots. There's some cool, groovy rhythmic breakdowns in the middle of the track too, the switch up are insane, and what's most impressive is that Colin has generated a sound on this track that sounds like, again, he's not just one man like you're hearing a performance of three different experimental jazz musicians collaborating in real time.

Colin further pushes the rhythmic component of this record on the track "Hollowing", where the clattering, clicking rhythmic sequences that are coming out of the mechanics of the instrument are just miked and just pushed to full volume, and they're repeating in this really insane way. It's just this – it's like... quite the noise he's generating here, and it's so tight and repetitive and consistent that it's like listening to a sample. But there are some like really cool nuances in the playing here and there. So still a lot of variation. But yeah, this piece is also kind of evocative in its own way too. It sounds like a steam powered robot stomping up a flight of stairs made of broken bones, and some of the mechanics working on this instrument points sound like actual drums, like snares and floor toms.

No wonder this guy is getting, like, commissioned for so many soundtracks. You're getting the range and sonic variety of several different musicians out of one man.

Going deeper into the record, "Malediction" is a quality centerpiece for the album. It is a nine minute monster that sees Colin taking a lot of the arpeggios and natural echo from the opening track, but really diving into them further to the point where the echo, the sound of the room, almost becomes another instrument in itself, especially as he starts bringing those howling melodies back into the fold toward the very end.

But really, the most amazing and mind blowing moment on this album comes in the form of a 21-minute piece, which is titled "Strike Your Forge and Grin". I have heard all of Colin's major projects up until this point, and I am convinced that this song is his greatest achievement yet, in terms of its pacing and structure, but most especially its sound, because the sound of this track is incredible. Honestly, the entire first leg of it sounds like the initial stages of a drone metal meditation from Sunn song. The hum and buzz of Colin's instrument and his continuous playing kind of feels like a bunch of tube amps just going through that downtuned guitar feedback and once again, through the way he's miking this instrument, he's actually able to get some rhythmic sounds out of it that feel like you are listening to some genuine drums, like being slammed against this drone, then coming in later into the track. You have these just howling lead melodies that sound like a 50 foot god mammoth screaming through the Grand Canyon.

And after the midpoint of this track, which again, the song is very immersive and very locked into this thing, you start getting these grooves building up that really snowball into an intense finish, really like a snowball rolling down the side of a mountain at top speed, getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger really takes you on a ride.

Now the issue is, though, with this piece and the album's overall flow, is that this track, this song right here, is really the record's peak. It continues on from here, but it fails to reach another point or another moment that is as interesting, as thrilling, as provocative. While I do think the actual closing track on the album is quite sweet on the ears, the project really could have ended here.

And then my main issue with the LP beyond that is that there are just a handful of pieces that honestly pale in comparison to others, pieces that maybe don't break that much new ground when compared to Colin's past releases, or just don't bring as much ambition to the table compositionally, like the progressions are not as enthralling, be that "The Auger" or "To think we knew from fear", or even "So say the soaring bullbats", which I think is the most tedious listen on the entire album.

So yeah, I am a little torn on this record, because I think some of Colin's darkest and most interesting and boldest pieces and compositions end up on this album. Simultaneously, some of his most predictable pieces also land on this record too, and I feel like cutting these songs from the record wouldn't even have really taken that much away from it, because it's a pretty long album, as is.

I feel like this record would have benefited from either kind of being sat with a bit more, being given more time to incubate so that each piece throughout ended up equally as bold or, you know, really just cut the album down to its most interesting moments. I think that would have also made for a better LP.

But still, with that being said, as is, this record from Colin is still very unique, very impressive, still features some of his best stuff to date. I just don't find it to be one of his most consistent albums, and that's all. Which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 on it.

Anthony Fantano. Colin Stetson. Forever.