GutterPutter

This album was released a few months back in April when I was just about to get started in writing up reviews on a weekly basis. Zachary McLellan is an American musician from Minnesota who has his debut back in 2018 at the mere age of 17 – a drone-based Numb Kite in a Thunderstorm which likewise garners little attention. With The Gyres, the genre has shifted drastically from being a grimy atmospheric record to what is by all account an emo-based indie rock record. One might well consider it to be his true debut as it receives a bit more attention than Numb Kite itself yet it’s only through the algorithm in RateYourMusic which is where I first learn of the musician & his work. With a rather high average rating of around 3.9 out of 5 based on only 20 or so ratings, I have decided to check it out myself. What this leads to is one of the most subtly mesmerising strings of records that I have ever listened to this year.

Consisting of 8 tracks which runs just over 30 minutes in total, there is a sense of fuzzy warmth which prevails through the album. ‘Afloat’, for instance, begins in medias res with the ringing distortion of the electric guitar as the gentle plucking of the acoustic guitar starts to arrive. From there, you may start to notice some patches of amateurism wherever it be a ringing from a misplaced fret or an audible sliding of the fingers to make another chord. Yet, it’s this seemingly home-made presentation which enables McLellan to carry an intimate charm that is missing from so many other musicians who dares to show their grandiosity. The array of instruments have helped to add to the anecdotal lyrics of himself. It requires multiple listens, but the stream-of-consciousness is charming & you can see the fleeting sense of youthfulness, even a grasp at mortality in an individual:

‘The tear were in my face

Said I might be lonely

& today as the sun wept

For every one of you

I thought it was for me too

But I don’t feel it

I’m living this’

You can see how jumbled the lyrics are & how the binary is established between McLellan/the narrator & the rest of the others as he starts to come to terms with the changes that not only leads to an irreversible disconnection, but even coming to grips with being alive. The folksy tune continue to play as we start to see the collision between the refrain of ‘It’s quiet & dark now’ & the samples which consisted of an unspecified conversation amidst the noises. ‘The Robin Drops to the Water’ is a more alt-rock track which seems to be around emotional neglect with nautical imagery being used as a metaphor for the constant prospect of having been prodded along for so little exchange. ‘Grungebox’ is more comparable to grunge (thus the name) with the heavily produced drumming reverb & a distorted rhythm guitar riff that is out of a shoegaze record as more abstract lyrics around disillusion, insomnia & despair. I can’t comment too much on the lyrics since you can’t hear them properly, but the melancholia hits the right balance between being familiar enough to appeal to fans of The Bends-era Radiohead & reveals just about enough distinction to stand out on its own. As we approach the end of the first half, we have the dissonant ‘Yellowed’ which contrasts the hopelessness found in the relationship. The tranquil strumming of the guitar within the anthemic chorus that shows an acceptance to a collective ennui (‘We can’t make it honey/ Please tell me that’s all right’) before the wailing of the tambourine elucidates a quiet, yet charming, masterpiece that flips the twee pop of Belle & Sebastian on its head & plunge right into resignation.

‘Facemaker’ shows McLellan’s artistry at his most poignant as the harmonic production of his layered vocals (paired with another artist in Scott Morrisson) start the bittersweet journey of lost love & the fear of forgetting their presence. There’s only two verses which depicts a devout dedication to remembering the face of his love interest as we close in to a crescendo of outright rocking that sticks out for its catharsis. The short, yet epic ‘Eternal Slumber of the Thoughtless Whales’ is instrumental-driven & its use of sampling in the rain & thunders to converge with the slowcore playing of the rock instruments have made for one atmospheric interlude before the climatic ‘The Gyres’. The nine-minute track expands on the sort of unrequited love that is before talked in ‘Facemaker’ but it’s been expanded further ahead to imagine a teenage love that, upon rejected, espouse a tearjerker of an acceptance on top of another scintillating collision of guitars & drums. It is amongst the most ambitious in the whole record & while I’m slightly disappointed that the production may not have ensured that the listener is engulfed in its prowess, it does support the last third of the album. Consisting of just a guitar riff & a hitting of a snare on top of the crashing waves, the reverberating playing of another guitar conjures a semisweet transition to ‘Ease’ – a denouement which sums up all of the theme of the record into one simple verse. ‘Please,/ Dream while it’s real/ Breathe/ This isn’t fair/ Peace/ Faith isn’t here’ is brief, but it’s the sort of downtempo post-rock outro that we need in the end to enjoy the time we have for our youth before it’s gone.

The Gyres is an album that I wouldn’t imagine to have come out of a virtual nobody even as an up-and-comer that you could call him as. It’s an astoundingly mature lamentation to the regrets we’ve made in our adolescence, yet it also reminds us to move on, even appreciate the wonder & naivety that comes through in the midst of our retrospection. At only the age of 20 just a day after its release, Zachary McLellan provides us with what might well be one of the best album of 2021 for that it incorporates the traits of slowcore, emo, shoegaze, post-rock & folk rock into a riveting collection of near-classics that so many artists would’ve dreamed of having twenty years into their career. (no puns intended). I hope that he continues to polish up his craftsmanship & in the next few years, assert himself as being among the most brilliant artist of his time.