The Gyres
by Zachary McLellan

From Mercury 10/14/2021 19:22 | #275019

(Great singer songwritery, indie rock-y, somber dreamy album. Very emotional. For me, anyway.)

I didn't know what "Gyre" meant, so I looked it up. One definition says a gyre is massive circular swirling oceanic pattern. Another, the verb definition, is to whirl someone or something around. Another def says its a vortex or spiral, I get the idea its something that spirals and can suck and pull one in. These are fascinating definitions.

The cover of this album is a young boy at the beach with what probably is his dad, they are looking out at the ocean - or the kid is and the father has his attention seemingly split between his child and the ocean that the child is taking in completely. It's a beautiful, nostalgic, and sad image - insofar as it seems like a picture that I can imagine myself looking at as an adult and crying about due to the thoughts of loss and lost potential and dreams that haven't come to be. The fact that it for some reason evokes so much melancholy in me makes me think its a great cover and deliberate. Of course each person will have their own emotional connections to it.

The artist is Zachary McLellan. He is from Minnesota and apparently (based off admittedly little research) still is based in Minnesota. He was born in 2001, is 20 years old and recorded this album when he was 19. He has another album listed on RYM, apparently its a dark ambient instrumental album so as far as I know this is his solo debut of this style where he sings at least.

This album impresses me, it moves me in ways which are unexpected and hard to explain, and it has a depth of feeling that blows me away. Stylistically it changes and evolves, there are acoustic lo fi tracks and parts of tracks that sound like perhaps a Microphones-ish thing especially when paired with Zachary's thin and emotive vocals. There are also definite walls of noisy minor key electric guitars that are somewhat early 90s lo fi indie rock/somewhat shoegazey. There are some big, soaring, very emotive post-rock guitar passages. There are rocking confessional singer songwriter vibes. And these elements are switched between well and are presented as a whole album that flows nicely and takes one on an emotional, sad, nostalgic journey.

The title track is loud and rough and features these HUGE fuzzy filthy guitars and these thundering drums across most of its 9 minute run time, before slinking back into a soft simple acoustic riff/jam in its closing minutes. The opener, "Afloat" is a soft and sodden acoustic track. The best track is hard to pinpoint (the album is quite consistent and the songs work pretty damn well together) but it may be track 2, "The Robin Drops to The Water". This is a track that manages to blend several sonic elements excellently and make a downright great epic of a song with beautiful poetic lyrics, excellent catchy melody, lots of sad and heavy and haunted emotions at its core and a nice sweep of a song "arc" I guess. Also the end of this song has the most obvious post rock guitar element if you're into such things. The closer "Ease" is a shambling, dreary little closer that sounds like death or the acceptance of something harsh and heavy and real. Its just 2 minutes about, but it ends the album off beautifully and in a bit of a sad way. "Grudgebox" features another filthy, fuzzy guitar sound. This time it is paired with a minimalistic drum machine rhythm, tinkly piano, and a dreamy and sad vocal - its just a cool tune. Then "Yellowed" is surprisingly poppy and gorgeously catchy, with a chorus that could come out of a 60s pop rock band, and a whispey guitar(?) sound that comes in and out that would be at home in a radiohead album.

Okay, so this comment has been a bit all over the place. I started by talking about what a Gyre was and then the cover and then a few notes on the mood and sound of the songs and a little bit about the artist. I think the combination of Zachary's voice, his sound (which is not fully formed yet and is clearly very very informed by his influences) and that striking cover image and the concept I get from the title The Gyres, all make this album a beautifully emotional and relatable and captivating album. For some reason amongst all the albums I randomly checked out this year this one has always managed to stick on my mind. It hit some kind of nerve or shared sadness. The concept of being sucked in and along, into some massive vortex, not in a violent or harsh way, but in a sadly inevitable way, seeing the things you so dearly love and want to hold onto do as all things do and fade and fade and go and go until they are only some vague picture of some far off day and the emotions that seemed so special at the time you are left to only conceptualize what you MUST have felt at that time rather than truly feel them ever again... it all comes rushing in when I hear this album.

So yeah anyway, what I mean to say is this is a solid friggin album and I like it. Check it out maybe.