Further Seems Forever – Hide Nothing

At the risk of sounding like a hipster (Are hipsters even relevant anymore?), I received this album on vinyl a couple weeks ago. Personally, I think vinyl is for the most part overrated and prefer music digitally or on CD. There's less skipping, no pops or cleaning, and these formats are more affordable. Vinyl nerds say that records have a "warmer" sound to them and that vinyl is the superior music format. Maybe they're right, but I'd like to pitch this hypothesis: Vinyl nerds spend so much on their equipment that they feel obligated to say music sounds better in this format—regardless of whether or not this is actually true.

You're free to take my remarks with a grain of salt. I'm just an occasional vinyl listener with an Audio Technica AT-LP60X connected to some computer speakers. And of course, there are certainly perks to vinyl, no matter how advanced one's setup is. I appreciate the enlarged artwork on the record jacket, having a lyric sheet to read along with, and in the case of Hide Nothing in particular, a retrospective essay to inform me of some of the record's background details.

It was a treat revisiting Hide Nothing on vinyl a couple weeks ago. I've been familiar with this album for a long time. (It was released in 2004, but I'm not sure I heard the whole thing until maybe 2006. The memory's fuzzy on this one!) I have a renewed appreciation for the lyrics after reading them more carefully. I've enjoyed Hide Nothing's emo/indie rock sound for so long, yet it's taken years for the lyrics to properly connect with my life experience.

Here are just a few of the lyrics that resonate with me:

"We live, and we learn, and we crash, and we burn, and we're gone." ("Hide Nothing")

"Watch somebody fall from grace. When there's nobody there to take their place, you can't help but feel alone." ("Like Someone You Know")

"Love is coming. Love won't let you die alone. Love is coming. Love won't let you try alone. Love is coming. Love won't let you cry alone." ("Make It a Part")

"I'm not living for the past. No, I'm not living for the memories." ("Call on the Life")

As simple as these lyrics are, the messages they convey about mortality, separation, love, and the past are powerful. Jon Bunch's remarkable singing truly completes them.