Life Fire in Peopledom – The Thicket (EP Review)

The Thicket is a short and sombre instrumental project that does an excellent job of telling a story through chords and melodies alone.

Life Fire has returned with another four-track EP for the first time since his last project, All Valley Sentimentals, which was released last August.

Similarly to All Valley Sentimentals, The Thicket is purely instrumental and relies on ambience and sombre chords to tell its story.

However, Life Fire utilises a style and soundscape more akin to folk or country music, vastly different from the maximalist cinematic sound that was displayed on All Valley Sentimentals with the song Zoey’s Reflection on American Carnage.

The EP’s opener, Sneaky Suspicions, reflects that stylistic choice and feels like an audible reflection of the EP’s album cover. The slowly plucked melancholic chords and atmospheric build-up at the start of the track paint a picture of a lonely forest in the middle of nowhere.

Come At Me Again, Salvation ups the ante with frantically played chords and a layer of anxiety and panic as if the listener is being chased. My favourite part of the song is the droning sounds at the end of the track, just past the 2:20 mark. The sounds add a cinematic movie score feel to the track, like a comedown from the first half’s fast-paced sound.

Goodnight Mr. Solverson and Goodnight Mrs. Solverson come together to be a two-part closer for the EP, however, with slightly different tones and emotions. The first song is probably my favorite off the EP; it’s softly played and captures the feeling of the outdoors and nature. If “Goodnight” in the title refers to death, then the message of this song would be acceptance.

The latter, however, feels a lot more sad and tragic. The emotion is downbeat as opposed to neutral, and it feels like it was played by someone who felt like they were left behind. Even though there are no words to suggest the meaning of the song or the EP, Goodnight Mrs. Solverson definitely tinges the ending of the project with a note of sadness and melancholy in a great way from a storytelling perspective.

Score/Excellent: Life Fire continues to tell stories through sound and sound alone. The EP is the perfect length, and it feels as if nothing was done without a purpose or meaning. The EP’s melancholic atmosphere might not be for everyone, but it will certainly go down a treat for those who enjoy complex artistic expression and instrumental albums.

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