The release of this single is in itself a victory. Last autumn, Tombstones In Their Eyes lost guitarist Paul Boutin to cancer. Such a loss always poses the question of whether the right thing is to call it a day or carry on, and there’s really no right answer, no correct course of action. Things will never be the same again, and drawing the curtain out of respect acknowledges that, while to continue is to acknowledge that the future won’t be the same, but to go forward and carry the essence of that person on in future endeavours. I write this not as someone who has lost a band member, but my wife to cancer in recent years, and as such I find myself faced daily with decisions around transition and continuation, challenges over what feels like sacrilege and respectful accommodation of what once was.
Tombstones In Their Eyes are keeping on, and still count Paul as a member in spirit, which is why they elected to proceed with the release of Under Dark Skies in December last year, and now the release of the album’s third single.
‘You Never Have to Love Me’ is described as ‘occupying the uneasy space between collapse and clarity, tracing a moment where survival demands self-reckoning and the realization that repair begins from within’, and is dedicated to Paul.
‘You Never Have to Love Me’ is a magnificently hazy mid-tempo song that builds layers and blooms gradually, and is more of a work of collectivism than simply a band recording, as John Treanor (vocals and guitar) set out: “There are a lot of musicians on this track, with 3 guitar players, 6 people contributing vocals, 2 bass players and 1 drummer and 1 keyboard player. We split the bass parts as Joel was not longer going to be in the band and Nic was coming back in. I had them both do parts and we used some of each. Phil did an amazing outro guitar part that to me is a highlight of the song.”
The result is a magnificently layered piece that starts of gently and grows and swells to towering enormity, a texture-filled sonic monolith. This is a song that fills you up, then lifts you upwards, in a glorious surge, which arrives almost subliminally: one moment you’re drifting along, and then, before you know it, you’re floating… a beautiful blur.
AA
Aural Aggravation 