Album of the Week: Manchester Orchestra, 'The Million Masks of God'
by Mac Wilson
May 10, 2021
They don't make 'em like this anymore! Dramatic crescendoes that lurch from tense ballads to enormous stadium expanses! Booming, urgent instrumentation! Opportunities for name-that-influence! Intricately constructed transitions that emphasize the importance of the album as an art form! Manchester Orchestra manage to incorporate the elements that would have unified any number of indie/alternative albums circa 2009, and manage to turn them into something that sounds fully fresh in 2021.
Band names I scribbled in the margins during the duration of listening to The Million Masks of God: The Antlers, Frightened Rabbit, Silversun Pickups, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Imagine Dragons, The National. This is a non-comprehensive list, but gives a good idea of how Manchester Orchestra can convey deep, complicated emotions in an enormous fashion.
The Atlanta-based Manchester Orchestra have worked for the better part of two decades to perfect this emotional, anthemic blend of sounds, and this album may be their most engaging yet.
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