Emeralds don’t make breakfast-music… still. However, the trio from Cleveland have become a tiny bit more melodious – only a wee bit. Because »Just To Feel Anything« still follows the usual mechanisms we already know from records like »What Happened«. Before Your Eyes« starts out much less quirky, but with a more catchy melody, picking up a guitar as it goes on. It’s also a guitar which tears apart the hectic rhythm in »Everything Is Inverted«. Maybe there is a genre somewhere that covers this kind of sound, however, it still needs a name, because Emeralds make their music somewhere between ambient, drone, dream-pop, post-rock and electronic music. The title-track fits in pretty much any niche, while at the same time it gives a game-boy a puke-attack. Much harder to take is the track »The Loser Keeps America Clean«: it runs only for about four minutes, but makes the tension go into a completely different direction. With its somewhat sluggish atmosphere, »Just To Feel Anything« has little to overrun the listener. Instead, the usage of guitars shows a will for airiness, even though many of the synthesizers and beats are too hectic for this approach. Still, »Search For Me In The Wasteland« remains to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music that anyone has ever recorded. Even though it doesn’t make the listener fancy coffee and cigarettes.
Just To Feel Anything
