One of the best post rock albums ever

Discovering music is a stochastic process. There are plenty of recommendation engines, you can buy music magazines, you can read blogs (no one reads this blog), you can go into a shop and buy an album on a whim. As such Spotify, Terrorizer, Zero Tolerance, even those goons at Metal Archives have introduced me to many bands over the years. 

However occasionally you happen across a band through sheer coincidence. Some time back I was Googling about a nascent solar eclipse and where to see it. And for some reason, amongst the advice not to stare directly at the Sun lest your retinas become as Icarus and rudimentary physics was one link to a record label I'd never heard of selling an album with the words Solar and See in it. "Huh," I thought, "what good ever came out of Belgium?" and forgot about it. Until I needed something to listen to and decided to give this album a spin. 

There you go. That's how I found out about this band. Looking for the corona on the internet. 

I'm very glad I discovered these guys (who are American, the Belgians being the label). To cut to the chase this is easily the best 2010s post rock album I've heard and is a contender for the best post anything album of the first quarter of the century. It's magnificent. Adjectives cannot do it justice. 

This band creates music for the sheer joy of creation. The pacing is just so, the soaring melodies interplay with the carefully progressed harmonies, the production is tight, it's just wonderful. 

The album is based around the Four Seasons and each of the first four movements takes a season. Spring bursts forth joyfully, full of promise, while Summer is richly laden with the fruits of the Earth. Autumn collects into a bountiful harvest, while winter decays. There's a fifth track which integrates everything. It's just gorgeous. 

I must say the physical release (fourth pressing I think, I'm not that cool) is very well put together. Nice thick card stock and the splatter pressing is artful. The four seasons are represented pictorially as the side indexing with side D (pictured) being a screen print. Only downside is they could have cut it at 45rpm. Maybe. 

These guys are also Christian, so out of respect I don't let it stand next to Darkthrone or similar. 

seriously this is an excellent album. No one will read this, but if you do, treat yourself to a spin of this.