55:12

Too often does post-rock fall into the trap of repeating patterns with increasing volume with the goal of each track to build a wall of sound to immerse the listener. While a legitimate structure, it can become tiresome after a while, so it's refreshing that Gregor Samsa has chosen to take the genre in a bit of a different direction.

The music stays slow and melancholic throughout, save for a bit of "Even Numbers," but that's not unexpected for a post-rock band, and it makes for good relaxation or studying music. There are no weak tracks that just beg for me to reach for the skip button (which is always a huge plus in my book), rather, each track flows into the other nicely, with a nice (yet subtle and understated) oscillation of sadder tunes and happier ones.

The magic of the album is found not in increasing volume of noise but in that the band will repeat a pattern of chords spelled out with very simple lines, and build up to a new line, following the same chords, that is very rewarding. The best example of this is at the end of "What I Can Manage" when a guitar line is played that's almost joyful, if restrained.

One thing that could be a plus or a minus depending on your taste is the vocals. They're never sung in full voice, but they're low enough in the mix that the breathiness of them doesn't stand out irritatingly. The band uses two vocalists, one male and one female, and has some very nice interplay between them sometimes. My opinion on the voices usually varies from "don't notice" (not necessarily a bad thing) to "fairly nice." The best showcase of vocals on the album is at the end of "We'll lean this way forever" when the female vocalist gets some overdubbing and a lot of windy microphone noise, which strikes me as something that *should* be irritating, but instead is actually very interesting to listen to in my opinion.

Basically, if you like your post-rock, you can't go wrong with Gregor Samsa. It probably won't bring too many people into the genre, and it'll probably be more appreciated by those who are fans of Sigur Ros rather than MONO, but a very good album nonetheless. Four stars well deserved.