HMLTD – The Worm

Art Rock | Progressive Rock

94%

 

If you reduce music journalism down to its base elements, my role as a reviewer essentially boils down to trying to persuade you to listen to a piece of music that may otherwise pass you by. Different people may respond better to particular methods of persuasion, so it pays to have a range of approaches; some subtle, some blunt as a hammer. One of the simplest methods is a basic comparison – “if you like X then you’ll like Y!”. It’s among the most surface level comments that can be made, certainly not something to lean too heavily on, but it serves a purpose in setting someone’s expectations. After all, so much of our perception of the world around us is based on comparison and contrast. Words like hot and cold, light and dark, are meaningless without a frame of reference. Letting someone know what an album may have in store for them is an important first step in getting them to listen.

Setting expectations in this way becomes doubly important when it comes to an album like The Worm. With a record that can be described as “eccentric” or “ambitious” or “avant garde”, providing a soft buffer of the familiar can help make it seem like a less daunting listening experience. So my question, when approaching this review, became: what comparison should I make?

The Mars Volta feels like a fitting parallel – the complex and chaotic jazz infused arrangement of ‘Wyrmlands’ sounds very Volta. The way the vocals and guitar howl in tandem at the close of ‘The End Is Now’ reminds me of ‘The Widow’, and the central story of this concept album can be as madcap and hard to follow as their debut was. Or how about King Crimson? The album’s structure reminds me of In The Court Of The Crimson King, how it starts with a frenzied freak-out and yet everything that follows has a grace and elegance to it. Musically there’s plenty here for Radiohead fans too. The soft piano driven tranquility of ‘Days’ and warm kaleidoscopic groove of ‘Saddest Worm Ever’ sound like they could have been lifted directly from A Moon Shaped Pool and In Rainbows respectively. The Worm‘s larger than life theatricality, most notably on the title track, shares a lot of its DNA with Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Hell, there are even strong hints of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On woven into The Worm. Partly in its use of orchestration and gospel choirs, but mainly how, if your strip away the fantastical, it’s a scathing socially conscious critique on the broken world we find ourselves in, and the powers that be which have laid it low. 

That’s a lot to unpack! Spoilt for choice when it it comes to comparisons to make. Especially given how, in my mind, each and every one of them: A) feels like a perfect fit, and yet B) only captures a tiny fraction of the bigger picture. Musically what this album does is take so many familiar elements and blend them together until we have something unique and unrecognisable. When there are so many apt comparisons to make, eventually the end result becomes incomparable. 

If I had to expand on one of the parallels however, it would be the What’s Going On-esque social commentary. In true wormlike fashion, it lies beneath the surface, requiring you to dig a little deeper. At the surface the album’s central concept focuses on the story of the titular worm; a giant undulating pink mass, awoken from its slumber, intent on devouring the album’s depiction of medieval England. …depending on your love, or lack thereof, for the unorthodox, you’re either immediately sold or in need of more convincing – stick with me either way.

Delving into allegory, the parable of the worm falls into two distinct metaphors. The first, an analogue for depression and mental illness. A parasite, burrowing ever deeper (“Why am I pink? Why am I blind? Why do I writhe inside this body?” on ‘Wyrmlands’), a growing well of hopelessness within (“I don’t want to face the days, I don’t want to ever wake” on ‘Days’). The other depiction meanwhile, is of the great nation-devouring worm as the ever grinding gears of the machinations of power. The insatiable greed of capitalism consuming all before it, and those intent on keeping the same vicious cycles ever spinning (“And we were betrayed, By the men who traded spines, To join the Worm King’s cavalcade” on ‘The End Is Nigh’). The division and narrow-mindedness sown from on high to disguise who the real enemy is (“Hatred is the Worm! Envy is the Worm! Ego is the Worm!” on the title track). Even the nature of the titular monster’s awakening carries a wider message on environmentalism (“Well, there were men burning holes in the earth, And they woke up the god in the sediment“). 

Thing is, these aren’t two separate metaphors at all. They’re two sides of the same coin, two halves of the same worm if you will. “The Worm lives deep within yourselves, and you live deep within the Worm“. The turmoil within is as much symptom of the bleak, unjust reality we find ourselves living in, and those feeling broken and demoralised by the system are often left far less able to change it. It’s a vicious circle, the worm is an ouroboros eating its own tail.

You would think this deeper message, the band addressing mental health and speaking truth to power, would be undermined by all the Monty Python-esque absurdity that adorns it. And yet, somehow it elevates it. Something about how the band commit wholeheartedly to the fantastical, how The Worm is so unashamedly and earnestly weird, just completes the package. At this point I have no idea if I’ve succeeded on selling this album to you or not. Ultimately all my comparisons mean very little, when I can say, with utmost certainty, that you’ve never heard anything quite like The Worm before.