Ah, Harvey Milk, Harvey Milk. There is much to say about the Athens, Georgia sludge/drone greats. Despite releasing some of the genre’s most prestigious works, they remained a cult favorite for over ten years, up until the release of 2008’s Life…The Best Game In Town. To be fair, it was a great album – really, one would be hard-pressed to find many better ’08 albums – but without Hydrahead in the picture, it hardly would have seen better reception than their past releases. Needless to say, it did considerably well, so it is not hard to imagine that the band would continue in the same direction for their next, and highly anticipated, Hydrahead release.
But that’s where the punch line comes in, because the Milk’s latest is anything but a comfortable follow-up to Life. It is more bleak and depressing than any black metal record I’ve heard in years (the cover looks more appropriate for an Emperor album), and it shrugs its shoulders to popularity and accessibility.
The ironically-named (but not) A Small Turn of Human Kindness goes back to drone-era Harvey Milk, echoing the relentless wail of My Love is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be – appropriately, it is named after a track of the same name on the latter album. Other than the untitled opening track, it presents seven tracks that tell somewhat of a story when their titles are compiled, and in many ways the music does this as well, since the whole album is like one song. Due to it being written in this style, A Small Turn of Human Kindness is the most focused Harvey Milk record yet. Like Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men this album is very minimalistic as a whole, and may come off as simple to some, but it is really all a part of the Milk’s genius with this record. As the opening track slowly builds at a slug’s pace, the first distinctive part of the album comes when Creston Spiers’ guitar moans into the mix with its feedback on “I Just Want to Go Home”. It is difficult not to feel utter dread when the frontman eventually retorts in his low grumble, like a man falling apart: what’s fucking funny? But, it is astounding that this simple use of feedback is capable of channeling such emotion into the song. The phrasing on songs like “I Alone Got Up and Left” also demonstrates the band’s skill with building on a song; in that particular case, it is drummer Kyle Spence, whose slow, hard hits entrance one, until Creston’s roar tears through the mix. Particularly on Courtesy, the phrasing was genius, but almost leaned towards quirkiness with how ridiculous it could be; A Small Turn is a much more serious work, so the use of phrasing is much more straightforward, but complimentary to the content. But what really raises the bar for Harvey Milk’s songwriting, is how well-paced this album is. While the majority of the band’s albums go well over the fifty minute mark – or at least around that number – this album finishes at around forty minutes. Though, this album certainly isn’t drone in the traditional sense, it carries a similar vibe and definitely has most of its required elements, which is why one might feel inclined to question its length. However, the notion that this isn’t the typical drone album is what makes it so well-written in the first place – it’s long enough for one to understand it, rather than suffer from its torturous monotony.
The only major setback of this record is that, although it is a genuinely Harvey Milk-brand record, it hardly brings anything new to the table. It does decently in combining elements of their early work to their new work, but every Harvey Milk record besides this one has introduced something new and exciting to their discography. For a record this well-written, one would expect to feel much more strongly about it after listening to it, but the common notion of something missing always comes about, due to this lack of inventiveness. Another issue is that other than the already-mentioned “I Just Want to Go Home”, “I Know This is All My Fault” is the only other track on A Small Turn of Human Kindness that truly sparks emotion in one. Like Courtesy, this record’s content is much darker than recent Milk material, but it lacks the intensity the former had – the polarizing differences between tracks like “The Lord’s Prayer” and “Sunshine (No Sun)” really brought this out, but there really isn’t anything of this caliber on the new one.
But regardless of all its deficiencies, A Small Turn of Human Kindness is the most finely-written Harvey Milk record yet, and is easily one of the year’s strongest titles thus far. Creston’s great knowledge of musical theory is more apparent than ever, as it comes to use not only in displaying his technical prowess, but in trimming the edges to make this album as polished as it is. This album should be an indication of what Harvey Milk really sounds like, for all the bandwagon fans, and yet another example of how to make contrarianism an art.
[Rating: 8.5/10]
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