Lift Your Skinny Fists was one of the last Godspeed albums I got. In fact, I bought it the same day I bought their most recent album, Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, which the shop owner kindly let me have a few days before it's actual release; with those two purchases my Godspeed LP collection was complete.
Whilst F# and Slow Riot I know are the first two releases and 'Allelujah and Asunder are the two recent releases, I often find I confuse Skinny Fists and Yanqui. They're both long albums from the era before I got into the band. Before today, I probably couldn't have confidently said in which order they were released in. It's not a slight on either of them, I just think they're the two most similar of the band's albums. Lift Your Skinny Fists is definitely a great album and one I should probably listen to more. It's easy to tend towards the first two releases (for their relative brevity) or 'Allelujah because it's possibly my favourite, so they get more play. I imagine I was slightly over-dosed on Godspeed around the time I got this record, especially having very excitedly played the new one immediately before hearing it for the first time (I wasn't hugely taken with the latest album, but more on that another time).
Storm reminds me a lot of We Drift Like Worried Fire from the (much later) follow-up - an uplifting epic piece of post-rock and everything I want from this band. It's dramatic but the mood is definitely positive, or so I feel at least. It has a mildly anti-climatic end, but that doesn't take away from the first 15 minutes. Static the starts off a bit slowly but eventually some strings build up over a man talking, slows down for a moment again (with what I think is a violin being picked rather than played with a bow) before modestly exploding into something much grander and ultimately very menacing. It's harder work than Storm but still very rewarding.
Sleep begins life as a rather gentle piece but the suspense kicks in and the violins seem to circle around you before the song quickly shifts. It speeds its way to what sounds like the end, but gradually grows into another rather uplifting piece featuring what sounds like a trumpet - a very triumphant instrument. Antennas to Heaven takes a little while to get going but when She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer gets going you know about it.
All in all, Lift Your Skinny Fists is a great album, but the band make you work hard to enjoy the highs - all of the songs are wrapped in tape loops and drones whose sole purpose is to pace out the explosive post rock; it's an aspect I find I still enjoy the album both for and in spite of.
Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves
Tracks: 4
Cost: £21 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 28/03/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
