At their concert in Buffalo over the summer, The Crane Wives announced that their album, Beyond Beyond Beyond would be coming out, and they played two songs from it as a preview. At that point, I utterly fell in love with the album, and since its release, have played it incessantly in my adoration. There are 11 songs all told, and each are wonderful in unique ways.
Bitter Medicine, one of the songs previewed during The Crane Wives’ concert, is about how the singer represses their cruel words to protect those around them, even at the cost of their own pain. The vocals are fascinating, in that multiple singers join for some words, but sing different notes.
Now normally those notes would come out to harmonise, but in Bitter Medicine, they don’t, creating a feeling of discord and chaos. The overall tempo is energetic and catchy. I can never stop myself from singing along with the chorus of “I bite my tongue to keep the worst of the words in; so they don’t hurt nobody but me.” An electric guitar shows its face, as it does in many Crane Wives songs.
Predator features an interesting emphasis on certain words (“What’s the worst thing that could happen? What’s the worst thing you could imagine?”). The rhythm created by the odd emphasis is at times reinforced by rhythmic clapping, and is backed by a synthy guitar. It’s about how the singer is being abused by their partner, and their realization that the abuse they’ve suffered is their partner’s fault, not theirs. Predator appeals to all the former anxious people-pleasers that once allowed themselves to be treated like a living-room rug.
Black Hole Fantasy is about falling in love, fantasizing about your crush, and eventually having that affection reciprocated. They repeat an interesting line during the chorus- “there’s a black hole in the living room floor”- and it’s alluded to that the black hole is representative of their infatuation. It’s metaphors like these that I believe really bring this album together.
Arcturus Beaming is my personal favorite song from the album. It’s about looking up at the stars and feeling insignificant, feeling diminished and tiny. It honestly comes across as an existential crisis put into song, and it is delightful. It uses Plato’s Cave to symbolize curiosity of what exists beyond what we know, and name-drops the album. The vocals are backed by more wonderful electric guitar, which is a staple of the Crane Wives’ music, and drumming.
As a brief warning, some of these songs do contain cursing. Listen to them at your own risk!
