“Liturgy Part Two” shares themes with “Liturgy,” the closer from Mason’s 2007 album, Mantra Songs. Around the halfway point, the song transitions to a slower, calmer portion where Jordaan repeats the same couplet of lines as the melody continues steadily before dissolving into nothing. Jordaan hollers about the invasion of privacy-of humanity-that often accompanies hospitalization. The following verse picks up where the last verse left off, yelling. This verse is one of the best vocal performances from Jordaan across their whole discography alone, making the song a highlight. The topic certainly has earned the intensity of the music. The verse depicts someone resisting being taken to a hospital by police. Already one can see Jordaan is not your average lyricist. “See: they took me from the savagery / And the surgery of my own body / We break in threes, I swallow these / I sing my own gallimaufry / And when sister says call the police / That wiseacre ain’t gettin’ me / She said they held me down until release / And I scratched my head into the streets / There’s fragments now, all in me / Of hospitals, all in me,” gradually rising to a yell. Jordaan’s verse during this segment of the song is quite interesting itself.
It’s a good intensity though, the song is lively, catchy, and fascinating. The song begins to build after a verse however, becoming very intense very quickly. Jordaan calmly sings about their blood being tested time and time again. Musically it starts subtle, with Jordaan’s voice and a strumming guitar. “Of Hospitals” is a brutal song about forced hospitalization. The song deals with being medicated to the point of numbness, which makes it thematically relevant to the third track on the album, the stunning “Of Hospitals.” “Pharmacy” is one of the most melodic songs on the album, making it an ear-worm, and I consistently find it stuck in my head.
#Songs about civilization vs savagery full
By comparison, the following track, “Pharmacy,” feels quite full in spite of also being kind of sparse and slow in its own ways. It is just Jordaan and their guitar, which is very sparse itself. The 12-minute title track is very spartan, at least in the beginning. No song exemplifies this better than the title track. It takes its time, sometimes moving at a glacial pace. Whereas Divorce Lawyers was more folk-y, reminiscent of bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and AJJ, The Decline almost seems to have evolved from post rock. Musically, The Decline is very different from Divorce Lawyers. It is one of the greatest lyrical feats of all time and deserves much more attention than it receives, but The Decline is yet another incredible lyrical feat, but only receives a fraction of the attention that Divorce Lawyers had.
The album is ultimately about a trans couple that breaks down due to failure to conform to societal norms for relationships. If you’re curious about that album Ethan Bloomfield, our reviews editor, wrote an excellent review of it that you can find here. I’m not going to delve into all the nuances of that album here, that alone could fill an entire column. Who is Jordaan Mason? Jordaan Mason is a Toronto-based nonbinary artist who achieved “cult classic” status with their phenomenal 2009 album, Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head. Like Fabulous Muscles, I discovered The Decline during a particularly difficult time in my life, and The Decline quickly became what Fabulous Muscles had been: a coping mechanism. Like The Decline, it deals with trauma and mental illness, but where Fabulous Muscles deals with the actual traumatic acts themselves, The Decline is more troubled with the effects. The album reminds me a lot of Xiu Xiu’s Fabulous Muscles, which for those who don’t know, is my favorite album of all time. They capture the complexities and confusing details of these issues in ways few artists have even attempted, and for them it seems to come so naturally. It deals heavily with trauma and mental illness like some of my other favorite music, but Jordaan Mason writes about these topics perhaps better than anyone else. The Decline questions what I take from music. Read more: 20,000 Albums for Eidelyn Gonzales: Atomizer It is a little long, as I am discussing all eight tracks. This version is much better, but strap in. In fact, I actually tried to write about this album for this column previously, but ended up walking away from it for various reasons. It’s one of those albums that I love so much it can be hard to form coherent thoughts about, talking about it often devolves to repetition and rambling.
The Decline of Stupid Fucking Western Civilization is one of my favorite albums, and it means a lot to me. I wanted to end this run of issues on a special note, so I decided to write about a special album.
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