Review of Two Songs by Tally Hall

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On occasion, I am asked to understand something which I cannot easily understand. Being asked to examine Tally Hall is an example of this. My initial thoughts were of bewilderment and apprehension, and indeed I maintain that opinion. After I had listened a few times, these two songs (Ruler of Everything and Spring and a Storm), I found them to be rather catchy. The lyrics seem rather nihilistic; indeed, the music, which fits the lyrics rather well, seems to express a sort of cheerful and cynical materialistic determinism. Both the music and the lyrics do not express hope, yet they work hard to avoid actual despair, somewhat like an only-moderately scorched cheese sauce. The devices which the music uses are thoroughly chaotic, yet fit together remarkably well, as if to suggest that the universe’s incomprehensible chaos (which would be the perception of such a materialistic weltanschauung) still somehow fits together (which is enabled by the deterministic thought regarding “Mechanical Hands” which “are the ruler of everything”). The ironic cynicism expressed by the music both appeals to me and scares me; it scares me both because of its sharpness and also by the introspection which it causes.

My opinion on this music is that I thoroughly do not know what to think.