I learned of Get Well Soon a few weeks back thanks to 8/1, but never got around to posting about this incredible debut.
With sweeping, hypnotic combinations of folk, indie-rock, classical, and electronica influences, each track within Rest Now Your Weary Head, You Will Get Well Soon plays like a uniquely crafted genre-bending concoction. It makes sense, considering the album is more like a “greatest hits” of nearly three years of smaller music releases from the group. Interchanging the romantic sounds of accordian and piano with looming guitar riffs and crashing drums, the album offers a diverse taste geared toward no sound in particular. Konstantin Gropper, the main member of the project, dominates this album with a cold, unaffected tone that is both chilling and occasionally sardonic; the perfect killjoy to the otherwise bright flourishes of the music around his voice. Gropper’s voice is a cool collection of some of the more melting vocals in pop: The apocalyptic tone of Nick Cave and the theatrics of David Bowie come to mind for me.
Highlights include “Witches! Witches! Rest Now In The Fire,” a romantic stringed foray into sixties pop melodics and witchy condemnation as well as “If This Hat Is Missing, I Have Gone Hunting,” which bounces merrily between apocalyptic guitar/accordian melded madness and taunting chants. The real highlight for me here is “People Magazine Front Cover,” an ebbing carousel of lofty financial fantasies. The song operates as a critique of modern capitalism, moving its storyteller closer into madness as the song continues on in its waltzing fashion: “Now that we’re rich and we own half of Asia/ We’ll use our money to change the world/ Baby, we’ll reinvent monarchy/ We will rule the world.” It’s hopeless at times, majestic at others.
The album, and I do tend to overuse this word, is epic in many ways. In this case though, I believe the means are truly deserving of such a heavy-handed label. Merging morosity with beauty, Get Well Soon has created a morbid fascination within me that’s kept me listening for weeks. Check out the Get Well Soon MySpace here.
