My Understandings

I Remember That Book

My Understandings by Of Mice & Men

From the band's second studio album, The Flood, My Understandings is kind of a roller coaster, but it maintains a cohesiveness despite its ups and downs.

The intro is a soothing and repetitive two-note pattern that blooms slowly into a multi-layered amalgamation of sounds. Even if you focus on the original two notes, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when they fade out of the mess of guitar and bass and background vocals. One minute the pattern is there, and the next it's gone.

When the main vocal line enters, the background noise gives way completely, and there's no accompaniment except some unobtrusive strumming.

The next section includes everything at once - drums and guitars and passionate singing and a huge increase in energy.

And then suddenly we're back to distant echoes and a sense of peace. Resolution maybe.

The construction of this song is interesting to me because it's basically made up of four sections: Intro - Chill Section - Intense Section - Outro. The intro and outro parallel each other, forming bookends around the meat of the track. The relaxed section with a cappella vibes introduces every lyric in the whole song, and the whole thing is repeated verbatim during the second part, just louder.

It took me a couple to listens to realize that the lyrics were repeated because they just sound so different the second time around. It's pretty cool.

Overview:

Genre:
Metalcore

Favorite Lyrics:
I don't mind if you're overrated.

Verdict:
Softer than I expected from a band with the word "metal" in the primary genre