For a band boasting so many members, Godspeed You! Black Emperor spent an awfully long time straining beneath the weight of their own concepts. During their first decade-long phase around the turn of the millennium, they were a proudly shambolic chamber ensemble making post-rock protest music; the specific quality of the strings or seamlessness of the samples mattered less than the apocalyptic alarms their gestalt sounded. The work suggested a stirring Dada pedigree, where the feverish expression of some revolutionary idea mattered more than the nuances of execution. Indeed, the sheer audacity of the enterprise and Godspeed’s unwavering commitment to unarmed musical confrontation felt truly awesome, making 1997’s F♯ A♯ ∞ and 2000’s Lift Your Skinny Fists motivational landmarks. But how much staying power could such willful imperfection hold?
Since Godspeed’s return a decade ago, they have dutifully addressed that question by making records that, by and large, sound more sophisticated and better played while maintaining their political ballast. During their time away, Godspeed recruited a powerful new drummer, and its members woodshedded in a dozen different projects. Their records since 2012 have been rendered with a combustible mix of force and detail, allowing Godspeed to lift their insurgent ideas rather than be saddled by them. G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!—their first album in four years and the fourth in this second phase—not only epitomizes this new dynamic but also emerges as a timely career triumph. The four suites of music here sound incredible, capturing the grandeur, aggression, and power of their symphonic punk with perfect clarity. And it feels incredible, too, as it endures passages of oppressive darkness to step at least toward a new dawn.
State’s End could initially be seen as some outburst of hope, especially as the wealthiest parts of the world vaccinate ourselves out of one crisis. The opening 20-minute suite feels like fight music, after all, a battle anthem built around a blade-sharp riff and marching drums; it fades into a victorious afterglow, where a dance for strings feels like a sigh of relief. And there is no moment more radiant or galvanizing in Godspeed’s discography than the third piece’s finale, “Ashes to Sea or Nearer to Thee.” It’s hard to hear it without smiling, without imaging yourself winning a race or beating back whatever long odds you certainly have. The string-and-static dénouement, “Our Side Has To Win (For DH),” possesses the same aspirational romanticism as its name, with Sophie Trudeau’s choir of violins arcing ever upward.