Rest Now, Weary Head! You Will Get Well Soon - Get Well Soon Album Review

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Album Review

Daring genre-bending masterpiece. From Berlin.

Get Well Soon’s mission statement (according to the CD packshot) is this guarantee –“I tried my very best to make this music loveable.”

Mission accomplished! This sumptuously eccentric and eloquent CD is one of the albums of 2008. In terms of adventure, it’s in the same frame as the magnificent Flying Club Cup (2007) by Beirut or The Sleepy Jackson’s Personality (2006). Other comparisons? Nick Drake, Bright Eyes and Tom Waits come to mind. There’s a touch of Sigur Ros in there too. This is the musical vision of 25 year old Berlin based Konstatin Gropper who’s a multi-instrumentalist, philosopher and producer no less. Ok, so the song titles are a bit, er, quirky, but the music is truly wonderful. In many ways it’s as daring as Rufus Wainwright’s Want One and Two, though he hasn’t got Rufus’ exquisite voice.

If you’re a real music fan, then this is one you’re gonna love to bits. Blending electro, folk, tango and classical overtones, Gropper elects to unleash this 21st century masterpiece and opus with a simple Prelude featuring xylophone clangs that drift away backed by an organ. It’s all delicate stuff and a sublime start that builds midway into whopping crescendo, fading out to the old xylo. Cinematic soundscapes and Beirut-like European brass engulf the intro of the monster that is You/Aurora/You/Seaside. It’s minimalist in lyrics which juxtapose perfectly with the dramatic flushes. Things get even better on Christmas In Adventure Parks. After the acoustic strums and ghostly vocal, it picks up a moderate pace and unfolds into a sumptuous ballad. The lyrics are bit cryptic, artistic licence maybe, but it hints at the warmth that emanates from someone’s soul and persona – “Save our souls with your golden heart,” he swoons in a monotonous tone.

There’s a short eastern European string arrangement opening dark If This Hat….This is a unsettling and menacing song. “Shoot baby! Shoot! Baby pull the trigger! Fire a bullet, an arrow or a poisoned dart, baby! Shoot, baby! Shoot! Free us from this pressure! With a rifle or a gun! We can’t live forever! It takes just one second.”

On the back of this we get the divine, but mournful, Help To Prevent Forest Fires with We Are Safe Inside… giving a strong nod to latter day Radiohead’s miserablist template. The eastern Euro flavour zooms back on plodding Your Endless Dream. The mood lightens slightly for Lost In The Mountains. Clunking piano and thumping drums precede a massive burst that returns to base once again, and so it goes all over again until the flushing crescendo. Coda, a short brassed based drifter, ends a quite remarkable achievement.

File under : Brilliant!

Elly Roberts