Tim Hecker - Love Streams

Tim Hecker
Love Streams
2016
Spotify

Sometimes you really have a hard go trying to determine what exactly something is. Is it music? Is it art? Where do we all eventually land on this particular...thing. That really is the struggle of listening to this album and much of what Tim Hecker does. He takes sound and turns it into the form of something else. Almost like imagining a picture in your mind but comprised completely of noise. There really is not a rhyme or reason, besides a clear intent on Tim Hecker's part, on where these songs go, on where one begins and another ends. Everything is connected through this line of vocals that just permeate everything but never actually say a word. The songs on Love Streams are not particularly short, but they just seem to pop in and out of existence. You look down and suddenly you are four tracks on without even realizing it. To call Love Streams haunting would be an understatement. On "Collapse Sonata" and into "Black Phase" the Organ just oozes with that sense of dread and the most haunting piece of it is that it comes at the very end of the record. You are left scared a little confused but also in awe of has just been put in front of you. The haze never really lifts on the record, it is always a bit muddled and disorienting never letting you grab on to one piece or another for to long.

Though there are bright moments on the record like the beginning of "Bijie Dream" which has these pretty sythy notes plucking away, but it eventually descends into the same murk that the rest of the album inhabits. The lack of rhythm also seems to be a distinct choice for Hecker. He doesn't want the listener to fall into a groove or get to enamored with one movement before He takes it away and switches into a completely different direction. The one thing that a lot of critics will say about this record is it stumbles it way into some kind of revelation, but that is digging so deep into this record it treats it as almost an abstract art class rather than music. You will not find anyone out there blasting Love Streams in their car as they drive down the road. This simply is not the music for that, this is taking the art form to a different level rather than a higher level. If you take that approach to this album it makes a lot more sense and is a lot more enjoyable but is that kind of pursuit really worth while? Did this album leave you with something more interesting or something more beautiful than a great pop record? I just don't know, and thus we are left right where we started with this record; shrouded in mystery unaware of just what is coming next.

6.5 out of 10