Blue October - "Spinning the Truth Around (Part II)"
The second part of this trilogy has started to clarify its purpose and direction
Spinning the Truth Around is an ongoing triple-album. StTA Part I was released last October, and it was good, but a bit underwhelming.1 I’ve been terribly uncertain about the potential of Part II since finding its release date.
Conceptually, the triple-album revolves around Justin Furstenfeld’s life falling apart during the Covid Lockdown - something that many people experienced. He touches a bit on some of the details in this Spin interview from last year. Suitably, the Parts I & II have been largely dealing with the struggles of failing relationships, the sadness in saying goodbye and dealing with unwanted change. There’s not a lot of brightness in these albums.
But, this is Blue October we’re talking about, so bright, happy bops were never really on the table to begin with.
Part I suffered a bit from unrestrained experimentation that delved out of the band’s comfort zone, but I think it has paid dividends here on Part II. The new album doesn’t really sound exactly like old Blue October, either. It’s bigger, more atmospheric, but in a way that meshes with their traditional sound. The ultimate result is an album which feels like the process of grieving; it’s long and sorrowful and introspective, but is also punctuated by bright moments and catharsis. The album starts with several rock-forward tracks as he struggles and fights to keep his relationship alive and gains sobriety, then dives into slower, sadder tracks for the second half of the album as the relationship collapses, and wraps up with what I can only describe as ‘mournful resolve’ in closing track “A Better Man”.
After the closing track, there are two remixes: “Down Here Waiting” is the only upbeat track on the album, and the “Mark Needham Mix” turns it into an outright dance bop;2 then closer “A Better Man” is repeated in the form of a “Brooklyn Mix”, which is a full minute-and-a-half shorter than the regular version and features deeper orchestral instrumentation.3 Remixes are generally not something I pay attention to, as they’re typically not as enjoyable as the original, but these two are excellent.
Another detail I’ve noticed here in the transition from Part I to Part II is the album cover. For comparison, here’s Part I’s cover:
The haze in the original is a clear representation of one of the biggest issues in Furstenfeld’s personal life – drug addiction. He is perfectly clear in the above interview that his past addictions caused lasting damage to his relationships. He’s been clean for eleven years now, but the damage in his marriage’s foundation caused a total collapse during the stress of the Pandemic.
The cover for Part II shows the change which has occurred in his environment, but the darkness remains in his head.
It’s a subtle-but-brilliant illustration for how the triple-album is evolving. It helps to really define each album individually and further explain what’s actually going on in the music.
There’s not a single track that just feels like filler. They’re all good. Part II feels like a triumphant return to form for Blue October.
Rating: Blue
I gave it a Green, but I’m pretty sure I was teetering on giving it Yellow
The original version is already pretty dancy, but the remix implements more House and EDM elements
Including a Viola or Cello in place of the original’s violin