Search - :: Hospital Music for the Aeshetics of Language

Pain-stakingly Good

Hunter Scribble | 05/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Have you ever heard an album that changed your life? This is one of those. Trophy Scars transcends many typical music genres and doesn't limit itself in experimentation (although it never gets distracting [i.e. the Mars Volta]). Beautifully melodic and painfully tortured, Trophy Scars has the ability to take the listener to emotional peaks as varied as its musical composition. Jerry Jones, vocalist/poet, has somehow managed to capture all the horrors of losing your innocence and all the beauties of falling in love for the first time. Destined to be a noted writer, Jones's voice resonates with the honesty of his penmanship. His voice is reminiscent of the "Fevers and Mirrors"-era Conor Oberst - but ranges to full on scream and then again to a playful flicker of the tongue. The vocals are densely layered to give you a sense of emotional schizophrenia (again, without being distracting). Beneath the words is a complimentary bouquet of music. Guitars go from epic melodic crescendos to playful jams to brutalizing breakdowns (yet somehow still retaining a melodic texture). The drums are mixed beautifully and perpetuate the liveliness in each song. Pianos are played delicately soft one moment to explode into jazz solos the next. On the last song "Lindsay..." the piano is a perfect example of how unquestionable happiness is ironically juxtaposed to unbearable sadness. Overall, Hospital Music for the Aesthetics of Language is an emotional adventure and is undeniably one of the greatest short collection of songs ever composed. For fans of Circle Takes the Square, Bright Eyes, The Blood Brothers, Modest Mouse, and City of Caterpillar."