Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!

This seminal LP from the Canadian Post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven! This album came out in the year 2000, and this is why they’re the kingpins in the genre Post-rock. This album just has something cinematic in it by nature, a variety of crescendos and soft lows, but there is plenty more than that, that’s going on in this album, there’s an urgent and aggressive, a social and political consciousness happening in this album, as well as being restless. There’s a strong element of classical music, but you shouldn’t go into this album thinking it will be like a symphonic rock album, I say classical not because of the pianos and violins but more like a pit orchestra. Skinny Fists has accolades to its names but I wouldn’t call it easy to listen to, unless you love drone, surrealistic soundscapes, don’t be thinking you’ll go into this album with a pleasing smile.

The builds in this album are pretty slow, don’t expect them to go anywhere fast, as the songs can go for 20 minutes in length but in my opinion, Godspeed really knows how to keep the quieter sides of their builds pretty listenable and engaging with interesting sounds lots of dynamic playing but when it comes to the louder sides of these builds, Godspeed provides how cohesive they are of a group and how they are just detailed oriented in these songs, as they become louder and intense, just as you think they hit the apex of a song, they make it either darker or brighter and the size of the sound just ricochets into your eardrums, but also the phrases of the strings or the horn arrangements over the course of the build will change which is also really nice because it leads to an evolution of the song. This emotional ride of a rollercoaster is definitely a must listen.