Timonium's songs have always been contemplative. Narcotic melodiescombine to create themes which repeat over and over, as if to bash youon the head. It's as if, at one moment, you had no earthly idea thesesounds existed in unison, but then you hear them and you becomedependent on them, uncertain whether you can go on living without them.To have these themes repeated over and over in a song, then, becomes ablessing rather than a curse, blissful rather than tedious. So perhaps"caressing" would be more suitable than "bashing," but keep in mindthat there are these incredibly loud moments in Timonium's songs wherethe caressing does in fact become bashing, though it is a thrashing onegladly accepts. 'Until He Finds Us' compacts these tensile melodiesinto shorter statements, but the songs remain long and contemplative byvirtue of more complex song structure. The exception which threatens toprove me wrong is the compact (3 minutes) first song, "Populations,"which touts a kinetic sound that never really explodes, but whichmanages to get the listener all worked up (accomplished largely by thedrum rhythms). I like to think of this song as a preamble to the wholealbum, and I think it works well like this. In previous albums, theband would use a combination of finely-wrought statements together withsweeping changes in dynamics (think Bedhead). Timonium has now addedtempo changes and time signature changes to their arsenal. "SolemnCorridors," for instance, embarks as a slow and somber song which ispunctuated by short guitar chords on the up beat, but halfway throughit switches time signatures and starts to rock significantly harder,all the while maintaining a melody which links these two disparatesections of the song like Siamese twins (except that these twins lookentirely normal and natural conjoined at the melody, and you wouldnever think of staring in bewilderment or averting your gaze inrevulsion). Timonium is growing up, and their music is likewisebecoming more complex. The whispery male and female vocals remainrefreshingly understated in most of the songs, letting the musicenvelope them rather than dominating the song. They do happen to peakout confidently in the louder parts, but it's only momentarily andalways proper. The messianic overtones of the album title and lyricshave the effect of turning this album into a type of post-rock hymnal,with lots of talk of blood, wounds, and rebirth. Somehow, even rocksand marble are imbued with some religious significance. Then again,there is just as much talk of birds, griffins, and trees. I am unsurewhat to make of it all, but I do challenge you to put the line "Ipissed in your mouth" in a song and have it sound as placid andsoothing as Timonium are able to. If there is a moment of ascension, itcomes early on in the album, in the song "Across the Footlights" (whichhas another attention-grabbing shift in time signature). You'll knowthe moment when it hits you just by the sheer glory of the sound, butwhether you're ready for it is an entirely different discussion. Read More
