Graham Reid | | 2 min read
The Feelings Remain
Regular readers of Elsewhere will be very familiar with Paul McLaney if not the remarkable breadth of all his work, which we have covered quite extensively.
Our interest in this polymath from Auckland is because there is a keen guiding intelligence behind his projects, in whatever form they arrive.
The Daylight Moon fits somewhere into his folk-ambient output (acoustic guitar, vocals, atmospheric electronica) and at times – the haunting The Past is All We Have – has a kind of intellectual, Bowie resonance.
The driving thought behind these 17, mostly brief, pieces running to a little over 40 minutes (that's a vinyl record in old money) is that Mankind will steadily evolve beyond its physical existence and move into the metaphysical.
If that sounds pretty weighty just think of how rapidly AI has arrived and is now part of not just conversations but our world, be it online or in academia, industry or the arts.
McLaney draws from the philosophical writings of Teilhard de Chardin and his proposition that a collective consciousness will emerge which he called the Omega Point.
Those thoughts mean that this is an album for times of quiet consideration, so there are atmospheric, instrumental breathing spaces (Of Pure Sunlight, Sinderby Close, the lightly folksy title track and others).
They are punctuated between the equally, emotionally muted songs which, like The Chequered Flag, pose existential questions: “Could you please explain to me the reasons why I’m still holding onto my hopes although I know my chances are so very slim now? Where did this faith come from? And will it last? And get me past the chequered flag?”.
On the gently droning space-ambient The True Version he explores the idea that our world and existence is internal: “I am neither adult or child, I’m just who I’ve always been, a soul wrapped in bone and skin.Yes, I am the true version of me”.
McLaney – who also wrote the thoughtful books The Deep Dark Hole/The Faint Glimmer of Hope (a tool to turn to if depression arrives) and the poetry collection Bookshop Prayers – doesn't leave the listener adrift in doubt or apprehension and in Every Fleeting Moment offers the Zen-like position: “Truth is temporary but some things are true enough to be useful. Forever is caught in each fleeting moment not in an idea of tomorrow”.
Penetrating stuff for sure, but songs like The Feelings Remain is as classy a song as you'll ever hear.
The philosophies which pulled McLaney down this path (conceived in one night, recorded over a weekend) may seem weighty but McLaney personalises his thinking as a kind of soul quest where the questions about existence remain in limbo as life goes on. And acceptance of uncertainty may be an answer in itself.
The final song is This is Who I Am: “Nothing much has changed, still turning up to get it right, still prepared to fail. I engage in conversations with memories of my self, still hoping for some good advice, still hoping it will help. This is who I am”.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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