Nathan Bright

English 101

Kelly Wavering

April 5th, 2024

Below the Salt: A Review of Leaves Turn Inside You, by Unwound

        Unwound was a post hardcore/noise punk band hailing from Olympia Washington. The band consisted of Justin Trosper on guitar and vocals, Sarah Lund on drums and Vern Rumsey on bass. Throughout the nineties they would release five studio albums consisting mostly of aggressive and noisy punk rock.

The first minutes of Leaves Turn Inside You make a statement. The high pitched looped guitar feedback which floods the first half of the intro track are meant to clue the listener into the fact that this album will be different. Opening the album on such a subdued yet abrasive note creates a sort of thesis for the record. This choice contrasts their past punk and noise influences while ushering in the slower and more lowkey post rock sound present throughout the album. Once the hum finally breaks, Justin’s vocals come crashing through followed by a mellow guitar and spaced out drums. The introduction to “the new Unwound” is somehow grand while still remaining lowkey and subdued. We Invent You serves as an abrasive statement for the listener, it tells everybody to forget what they thought Unwound was and embrace this last journey across the rapidly unfolding spool of yarn.         

The second song, Look a Ghost is a somber track about the loss of love told in an abstract way by comparing the everpresent memory to seeing a ghost. The production and instrumental of this song is kind of spooky yet reassuring with its slow drums, groovy bassline and twangy high pitched guitar notes. The chorus includes Justin’s winding vocals swirling around the rest of the instrumental while he softly sings: “Look a ghost came through the door, from a thousand years before” As a side note, while there are clear themes of change, loss and disappointment strewn throughout the record, many of the lyrics and the .meanings behind them are kind of nebulous and mostly left ambiguous to the audience.

One of the highlights of the first half, and a personal favorite from the album is December. The song begins with one of the most groovy basslines that the band has ever done, it’s almost hypnotic in the way it bends and flows. December is one of two songs in Unwound's entire discography which contains vocals from Vern, his haunting but somehow nonchalant vocal style adds an extra layer of depth to the sound and overall vibe of the song which would be missing without his voice. From the excellent bassline, to the vocal contribution, December feels like it really is Vern’s song and nobody else's.

The middle portion of the album has a contrast between somber, slow songs and louder more aggressive songs while still keeping the low tempo. A big highlight of this section of the album is Off This Century, this song flows hrough its first verse in a frantic, almost anxious way. The song is mostly about the changing tides of culture, the crushing weight of predetermination and paranoia moving into the 21st century as well as serving as a critique of the rapid commodification of the human soul with lyrics like: “Everything is a commercial”, “The future was invented back when you thought you were human” and “Its every bastard for himself”. . The last verse in particular sticks out: “The future is invented/And you might be the last/life is like monopoly/you are not old your obsolete/and you thought/The last ten years were bad” This verse sums up some of the ethos of this album. The verse is mostly about our fate being planned out and acknowledging that in our society many people live only to serve a system and are then cast out once they cannot work any longer. The song ends on a pungent note, basically stating that it may have been bad then, and the system may have been crushing everyone for profits, but alas it will only continue to perpetuate itself.

Another highlight of the middle of the album is Terminus, which many consider to be among Unwound greatest songs. This song really pushes the post rock influences on this album to the forefront. It begins with an energetic guitar riff, some sweet smooth bass and frantic drumming. The verses are chalked full of “I am” statements and contradictions to highlight a sense of duality in the narrator: “Brain me not a head/fill me im a tank/blame me im not blank/wash me im so clean/love me im so mean”. After the second verse and chorus the song breaks into a long drawn out guitar and bass solo which progressively gets more and more frantic as a strings section can be heard slowly revealing itself in the background before breaking into a dissonant synth section which serves as the big payoff for the long buildup.

October All Over and Summer Freeze are a two part punch to the gut in the best way possible. Both songs contrast their somber instrumentals and smooth vocals with hints of loud aggression and experimentation. The former is a slow and thoughtful piece about loving, losing and moving on. Blaming everyone but yourself while falling into the same cycles and waiting around for something to change without taking action. These themes are best exemplified through the first verse and chorus: “Only in october/now it's nearly over/maybe in november/you can't remember/when it rains it feels like pain/find yourself after work/find another city to blame/lock yourself in the house”. Summer Freeze on the other hand is a faster and more frantic song utilizing bells and synths in its soundscape. The first verse slowly builds up to an explosive chorus with quickly strummed looped guitars and an almost feverish delivery of the vocals from Justin before collapsing again into the second verse. After the second verse and chorus the song fades out with loosely strummed guitars and dissonant drums before one more short rendition of the chorus.

The final two songs of the record work in unison as a sendoff to the band and a final statement. The first being Unwound’s magnum opus: Below the Salt. Below the salt is a ten minute tour de force incorporating many themes and musical aspects previously heard on the album and their past albums while also sounding like nothing else the band had done prior. Below The Salt is the most “post rock” that unwound would ever get and honestly that's kind of disappointing as they absolutely nail the style. The first thing the listener hears is amplifier feedback mixed with a strange scraping sound as soft piano keys slowly fade in with a myriad of other noises to build the atmosphere. Then comes Sarah’s crushing triplet flow drumbeat combined with nautical sounding chimes and one of Vern’s most infectious basslines. The song takes its sweet time building its atmosphere as more and more layers just keep getting added on and the groove of the song comes more into focus. Below The Salt is a long drawn out journey, switching between different rhythms and melodies, however it is always fluidly building to the same thing and never loses its focus. Finally the payoff hits, the bassplaying becomes faster, the guitars begin to overpower everything else and the drums begin to crash harder, finally Justin comes with a lost and disconnected sounding verse before the song recedes back into a repeat of the first section. The final breakdown of the song is gut wrenching, as the band gives it their all, but they aren't giving it their all through screaming or playing super loud or anything like that. Their passion and emotion shines through the instrumental becoming tighter and more frantic before the song ends on a powerful last verse which sums up the ethos of the record while still remaining mysterious and interpretive. The last verse contains the lyrics: “I meant for something new/to make anything true/is part of what I do/never coming back to you/is it that I said/To bleed and make a pact/together apart from then/then on I'll tell you when/Below the salt means less, then nothing that I said” This final verse, while being ambiguous and not seeming to make a concrete statement is basically saying that nothing and everything has simultaneously changed, the narrator is still just as disconnected and dissatisfied as before but has still learned and is still growing, however at the end of the day he still exists and forever will exist below the salt. It almost reads as a metaphor for the band itself.

The final track of the album is Who Cares, which is strangely enough an instrumental outro using Mexican polka music as its main sound. While a strange choice stylistically, it is in my opinion, the perfect note to end the band on. As it’s one last left turn and leaves the listener wondering what they just heard. It plays into the concepts of absurdity and uncertainty laden through the album and band’s entire discography.

Leaves Turn Inside You by Unwound is an album that is and likely always will be very important to me and shines as an example of a band taking a huge risk and it paying off in the end. The everpresent twists and turns hold the listener's attention and begs them to ask “what's next” before they're left with the answer: “Who cares?’

Unwound: The Untold Story. (2013, April 19). UNWOUND. http://unwoundarchive.com/blog/2013/4/19/unwound-the-untold-story