Top 25 Albums Of The Decade (#8)

8) MAUDLIN OF THE WELL – Part The Second (2009)

Face the album that should not be. When Toby Driver “disbanded” Maudlin Of The Well back in 2002 to commence his newer, more experimental project Kayo Dot, no one thought we’d ever hear this sort of thing again. Driver had gone cosmic, had left planet Earth for the realms empyrean, never to return. That is, until summer 2008, when it was announced that plans were in the works for the first MOTW album in eight years. The endeavor would be entirely fan-funded and released for free on the band’s website (where it’s still available: http://www.maudlinofthewell.net/), with everyone who donated listed as an “executive producer.” Needless to say, $100.00 has never disappeared so quickly from my bank account—unless you count the night of July 29, 2007 at the Gentleman’s Club in Charlotte, NC. You’re welcome, bitches. But even when it was announced that much of the music was left over from compositions dated 1997-2001, I. Did. Not. Lose. It. And remained calm, resting assured that Part The Second would be an epic disappointment. I’m not saying that I didn’t think Driver could pull it off. It just seemed like he wasn’t really into this whole “music” concept anymore (you know, that thing with discernable rhythms and structures and melodies). Worse yet, it felt like a surrender—people had been begging him for so long to start writing songs again that he finally just caved in. “Give the people what they want and move on” seemed to be the sentiment. If anyone reserved the right to release a dud, it was Driver. But that’s not what happened. Oh boy—that’s not what happened. It’s impossible that Part The Second should be this good. Fucking impossible. Abandoning the death metal that had made up a fourth of the original MOTW sound, Part The Second is a homogenous fusion of Floydian dreamscapes, effervescent violins, clean-toned guitars, pianos and the Twin Peaks theme song—all combining to create an ambiance that’s akin to being a ghost riding in the tail of a comet. “Heaven Metal” I guess you could say. But why even call it metal any more? This is about as far from Century Media as one could ever get. And don’t let the song titles fool you into thinking this is some kind of “prog” thing either, nor the pedestrian album title, which I actually believe to be a double entendre: 1) second incarnation of the band, 2) music so enmeshed in the fourth dimension that it literally splits time.