ALBUM REVIEW: f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶I ̶h̶o̶pe̶? for what must we hope? – There’s A Light

Hope. We build our lives around it. Some of us champion it, and some of us loathe it. Either way, we spend our lifetimes either chasing it or running away from it. For optimists, it’s a golden glow, a sunrise; for pessimists, it’s a dark cloud, a sunset. Hope can guide us through our darkest hours, or it can drag us towards them as we hold on. It is one of humanity’s most complex emotions. So, at its core, is hope our crux or our crutch? It’s a question post-rockers THERE’S A LIGHT pose, rather than answer, on f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶I ̶h̶o̶pe̶? for what must we hope? Whether it’s their intention or not, you find yourself digging deep inside your own feelings, trying to find answers to your own questions of hope. Considering just three of its 11 tracks feature lyrics, achieving this compelling call-to-arms for listeners is no mean feat, and does not go unnoticed.

On f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶I ̶h̶o̶pe̶? for what must we hope? the quintet paint a path of subtle progression from their 2018 debut A Long Lost Silence. Where their post-rock once felt daunting and dark, wrapped up in bursts of overwhelming heaviness, here it feels light, as riffs shimmer like the sun’s reflection on a lake. It captures hope in all its guises, as quiet timbres skim the water for joy and flash floods of amped-up riffs and dynamic drum patterns crash the tracks’ surfaces like waves of hope’s murkier consequences. 

Throughout the record, the band narrate their soundscapes with the command of a painter, an attention to detail that would make Michelangelo blush. Similar to their approach on A Long Lost Silence, THERE’S A LIGHT reward listeners in it for the long-haul. Whilst a single listen requires over an hour of your time, repeat listens let you discover minimal nuances, whether it’s in the magical interplay between guitarists David Christmann and Markus Dodd and pianist Jonas Obermüller, or Jan Lüftner’s colourful drum fills that subtly shift the tone and take on new meanings. 

On the other hand, the album’s runtime does require your commitment. You’ve got to suspend your disbelief and buy-in to their state of mind. If you’re new to THERE’S A LIGHT, it’s as easy as ABC. And if you’ve spent some time with A Long Lost Silence, you’ll find it easier said than done. Away from its brighter, at times quieter, tones, the progression is enough to pass the test but not enough that if you were to play the albums one after the other, you wouldn’t know you’ve moved to the next one. 

Vocalist Andreas Richau haunts the tracks like a ghost in reverie, slipping under the mix much like the shoegaze they hinted at previously. It’s a touch that at times feels like an out-of-body experience, for better or worse, as it allows you to slip into his stream of consciousness. Plucked out of the post-rock playbook, they strip away structures for lyrics that read more like poems. Ultimately, it’s this which elevates the vocal tracks above the album’s noise as highlights. On Elpis – which in Greek mythology is the spirit of hope – Richau wrestles with both sides of hope’s coin. As the music gently simmers before being brought to its climatic boil, the lyrics capture the pain of holding on to hope – “I only led you to the inescapable abyss in front of you” – before juxtaposing it with the good it can do – “I was your light, your guiding light on the horizon.” 

It’s no secret that post-rock is a genre made for studying emotion in sound, yet so few of its students ever graduate. However, on f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶I ̶h̶o̶pe̶? for what must we hope?, THERE’S A LIGHT present their thesis and prove it’s possible to truly trick your audience into psychoanalysing their understanding of something as seemingly simple as hope. It’s magical and maddening all at once. If this is just their second album, the future is beyond bright for this German quintet, who already possess the power to make masterpieces.

Rating: 9/10

f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶I ̶h̶o̶pe̶? for what must we hope? is set for release on December 10th via Napalm Records. 

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