After a great amount of musical building, the first half of BC,NR's "Science Fair" falls to an anticlimax with a shy sax squawk and improvisation with guitar. This was so dissapointing the first time I heard it. Compared to songs like "Sunglasses" and "Snow Globes" which take more from the cliche post-rock song structure of slow build to climax, this choice to abruptly end the build felt like a big mistake that I felt ruined the song. However, after several more listens this quickly became my favorite part of the song when I knew it was coming. Making an artistic choice like this, so unexpected, that somehow works so well with the strangess of the rest of the song, made this a highlight of For the First Time for me.

My first few listens of Forever Howlong had me greatly worried. After loving both Ants from Up There & Live at Bush Hall, I wanted so badly to like this new album (especially after learning the Joanna Newsom influence I heard on Bush Hall wasn't imagined). Something just felt wrong about these new songs - they didn't feel complete.

"Two Horses" reaches its powerful moment then trails off for an extra minute that feels vestigal and takes away from where it should've ended. The bridge of "Nancy Tries to Take the Night" ('The rapture of the autumn eve / lead to a fate no-one believed') feels as if any second the drums will come back in for a big finish but instead it dissolves into a slow outro. "For the Cold Country" is like a series of rug pulls where just as you are given a really interesting musical scene the band moves on from it after a few seconds. The eventual culmination feels like it wasn't foreshadowed and comes out of nowhere. "Socks" felt the most wrong, the song doesn't go anywhere, it just meanders along with its way too obvious and clean rhymes. Even though most of the albums I would end up listening to dozens or hundreds of times I started out not liking, I just couldn't see how these songs would be worth listening to over and over again.

Apocalypse, Girl by Jenny Hval was a really interesting album that consumed my listening attention in my 20th Autumn. What might appear on the surface as fairly simple pop songs, lose this face when you realize their unorthodox strong structure - they don't have one. The songs move and progress, never repeating a verse, chorus, or even a line. Little miraculous musical moments are dotted throughout the album that are so good, but to hear them again you have to listen back through the full 40 minutes. This was frustrating at first, but I quickly came to love this about the album and it made it so special. A lesson I had learned years ago I had to learn again.

After half a dozen listens it began to reveal itself to me. When taken in with familiarity, and viewed as a full-album arc rather than as contained songs, Forever Howlong's depth and completeness can be seen. The lack of another verse after the bridge in "Nancy Tries to Take the Night" no longer feels like a let down and rather something to look forward to. The dozen different mini-passages in "For the Cold Country" no longer feel like missed opportunities for development, they feel like transient little gems that sparkle all together. On repeat listens, the subtle instrumentation reveal the connections and foreshadowing the song holds within itself. Piece by piece little moments in each song accumulated until I was excited about listening to so much of the album that only occurred once that I kept replaying it over and over again, loving the whole thing.

Even "Socks" began to slowly take shape from nothing like a blurry optical illusion. Now, I can't see the old way I saw it after it became clear - just like how the "For the Cold Country" single once looked like a person shooting finger guns until I looked closer and saw the bird, now I can't force myself to see the pointing 'cool guy' I saw before. How? How could lyrics that seemed so plain and instruments that seemed so empty suddenly *click* and make so much sense? I have no answer or guess, but I did find one very important aspect to the mindset needed for this album.

The mood of Forever Howlong is given on "Forever Howlong." This is not a purely happy, energetic album. The red sun has blue eyes. The songs aren't building towards big bursts of energy and climaxes. You don't need to wait through the slow parts to get to them, the slow parts are the parts to replay the album for. When approached as a slow, dreamy album that occasionally has rises into something to dance to, the full experience aligns.

WIP - the raincoats salem sisters / musical socks. Reminded of other things i liked or disliked makes me associate the music with that? Like a song that might be in a car commercial somehow ruins it somehow??