Latest PVRIS album is
catchy & thrillingly dark
“You took my heaven away,”
sings Lynn Gunn on “Heaven,”
the first track of PVRIS’s new
album All We Know of Heaven,
All We Need of Hell. This
sentiment — anguished and
accusatory, the lyrics backed
by a hard swell of rock — sets
the tone for the rest of the
album, a self-assured musical
exploration that is as angry and
troubled as it is fierce.
All We Know of Heaven, All We
Need of Hell is PVRIS’s second
album after their well-received
debut, White Noise. It includes
much of the emotional force
and honesty that originally
made White Noise popular, and
refreshingly, it accomplishes the
rare feat of not reaching too far
beyond itself. The rock-infused
approach to songs like “Heaven”
and “No Mercy” is hard and
dark, but not oppressive, and the
lyrics are dramatic, but don’t
come across as presumptuous
or overused. This is especially
true on “What’s Wrong,” with
the repeated line, “You don’t
need a metaphor to know I’m
miserable.” The result is an
album that is sure of itself,
well defined and enthrallingly
catchy.
It’s also very cohesive; the
hard-edged
guitar
chords
and ripped-raw lyrics carry
the listener through anger,
desperation,
sorrow
and
finally numb resignation in
the span of 10 songs, and at no
point do the transitions feel
jarring or unearned. This is in
part because one of PVRIS’s
strengths is their ability to
balance
soft,
contemplative
melodies with active, livid rock,
often within the space of a single
song. For instance, “Separate”
starts out with a gentle (albeit
dark) electronic ambience that,
through
steady
drums
and
mounting production, escalates
smoothly into a chorus that
feels at once angry, waking
and alive. The most surprising
thing
is
that
the
transition
is
so
seamless
—
it’s
difficult
to
notice
it’s
even
happening
until it’s already
over. The album
comes full circle
particularly
in
its
final
track,
“Nola 1,” which
incorporates
the tune of the
chorus of the earlier track,
“What’s Wrong.”
An
especially
appealing
aspect of All We Know of Heaven,
All We Need of Hell is that while
it was clearly carefully produced
and arranged, it doesn’t lean on
its own skillful production to
carry the meaning. The lyrics
also hold up to scrutiny in their
own right. Early on, “Anyone
Else” cuts to the bone with
lyrics like “’Cause I could touch
a hundred thousand souls / But
none of them would ever feel
like home,” and “Nola 1” closes
out the album with skewed and
scattered images of a house
once haunted. Things do get a
little cliché and melodramatic
in “Walk Alone” (“I was the
smoke
in
your
lungs tearing you
apart,” “Darling, I
always knew that
we were doomed,”
etc.).
However,
every song on the
album
puts
in
at least a strong
effort where lyrics
are
concerned,
both
in
terms
of visibility and
description and in
terms of honesty.
For all its merits, it must
be said that All We Know of
Heaven, All We Need of Hell
doesn’t take PVRIS very far
away from White Noise in terms
of artistic direction. It’s darker
and feels more complete and
realized, but doesn’t mark any
drastic new risks or interesting
incorporations of new genres.
Every once in a while it feels
generic, because when you’re
singing
about
relationship
turmoil and tension from a
frame as broad as heaven and
hell, it’s hard not to get a little
generic at times. But this is
only the band’s second album,
and it still stands alone as a
dark, snappy and quality piece
of work. The lyrics, production
and melodies all contribute an
equal effort to make the album:
A strong representation of the
turmoil that comes at the end
of a relationship, and what that
can mean emotionally for all
involved.
LAURA DZUBAY
Daily Arts Writer
All We Know
of Heaven, All
We Need of
Hell
PVRIS
Rise
‘Game of Thrones’ season
seven finishes strong
Since its premiere in 2011,
“Game of Thrones” has developed
a reputation for bold, sweeping
season finales. That’s not to take
anything away from the rest of the
series’s episodes, which are equally
ridiculous
and
consequential,
but only to say that
“Game of Thrones”’
finales have become
almost larger-than-
life. True to form, the
latest season send-
off, “The Dragon
and the Wolf,” more
than lives up to this
tradition.
Capping
off
the
show’s
seventh
season
masterfully,
“The
Dragon and the Wolf” redeems
some of the series’s earlier season
missteps and reminds audiences
of the show’s status as television
royalty.
Clocking in at 81 minutes, “The
Dragon and the Wolf” is a massive
cinematic
episode
that
sees
“Thrones” scheming at its best,
with the Starks and the Lannisters
leading the way. Having followed
Sansa
Stark
(Sophie
Turner,
“Barely Lethal”) through her
brutal
upbringing
in
King’s
Landing, viewers finally got to
witness the culmination of Sansa’s
transformation into a merciless
and cunning Lady of Winterfell. In
one of the most powerful scenes of
“The Dragon and the Wolf,” Sansa
beautifully conspires with Arya
Stark (Maisie Williams, “iBoy”) to
finally extract vengeance against
Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aidan
Gillen, “The Wire”). Watching
Sansa use lessons in ruthlessness
learned from Littlefinger himself
— the architect of much of her
suffering — was simply incredible.
Elsewhere, in King’s Landing,
Cersei Lannister (Lena Headley,
“The Brothers Grimm”) concocts a
brilliant plan with Euron Greyjoy
(Pilou Asbæk, “Lucy”) to stealthily
ferry
The
Golden
Company
mercenaries to Westeros.
While
Cersei’s
maneuver
to bolster the Lannister army
through
mercenaries
figures to be a
central aspect of
the next and final
season,
Season
Eight
seems
primed
to
be
dominated by the
war between the
White
Walkers
and
the
Stark-
Targaryen allied
forces. “The Dragon and the Wolf”
did a great job of featuring many
of the series’s various overlapping
stories, while still making clear
that this war between the armies
of the living and the dead is the
show’s primary focus. For now,
audiences will have to wait for
any more clashes between the
Lannisters and the Targaryens.
“The Dragon and the Wolf” also
handled Theon Greyjoy’s (Alfie
Allen, “John Wick”) meandering
storyline well, inspiring viewers to
root for the disgraced Greyjoy son
again. After yet another season of
a timid, spineless Theon, nearly
all loyal “Thrones” supporters
had given up hope of any sort
of
redemption
from
Theon.
Flipping that narrative on its
head, this season finale featured
Theon summoning the courage
to set out to rescue his sister
Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan,
“The Wolfman”). In the process,
Theon kills a fellow Ironborn in a
barbaric fistfight that wins back
the support of his soldiers and, by
extension, “Thrones” fans.
This is one of the biggest
strengths
of
“The
Dragon
and the Wolf” — it rewards
“Thrones” viewers’ loyalty with
outstanding pay-off scenes. For
years, “Thrones” has teased that
“Winter is coming,” and with it,
the army of the dead. The finale
portrayed winter’s arrival in grand
through a snowy scene in King’s
Landing with a breathtaking
shot of the Wall collapsing,
shredded with fireballs by a
White Walker riding an undead
dragon. Outside of these shots,
“Thrones” gave audiences a Jon
Snow (Kit Harington, “Pompeii”)
and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia
Clarke, “Terminator Genisys”)
sex scene after several episodes of
subtle sexual tension.
As a “Thrones” season finale,
“The Dragon and the Wolf”
wouldn’t be complete without
some
last
second
plotline
bombshell,
and
the
episode
fully delivers in this area. In the
penultimate scene of the episode,
fan-favorites Samwell Tarly (John
Bradley, “Traders”) and Bran
Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright,
“The Boxtrolls”) learn of Jon’s
true lineage as the son of Rhaegar
Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.
While the show has hinted at this
revelation since its premiere, the
discovery remains monumental
by making Jon the true heir to the
Iron Throne, though it also makes
his relationship with Daenerys
clearly incestal — she is his aunt.
Having such a stunning reveal as
only a minor piece of the stellar
season finale is exactly what
audiences have come to expect
from “Thrones,” and it’s why they
will keep returning to watch the
series’s eighth and final season.
CONNOR GRADY
Daily Arts Writer
Game of
Thrones
Season 7
Finale
HBO
Arts
ALBUM REVIEW
TV REVIEW
The hard-edged
guitar chords and
ripped-raw lyrics
carry the listener
through anger,
desperation
8A — Tuesday, September 5, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com