Typhoon: Offerings
One of my favorite bands for years now has been Typhoon. An indie rock band hailing from Oregon, who's first full length album came out in 2005. Between 2005, and 2013, they released two more albums, Hunger and Thirst, and White Lighter. Once discovered, Typhoon has been the soundtrack for much of my early twenties. A friend recommended them to me when I was 19, and at first listen I was hooked.
Being a writer, I spend a lot of time day dreaming. Typhoon has furthered this habit, with their extremely narrative based songs. Their music is lush and film worthy--painting descriptive scenes that pull you right into another world. White Lighter for instance, feels like summer soaked memories; intimate, and deeply relatable all at once. I find it hard to get sick of their music, so I hadn't really noticed that five years had passed since they had put out an album. Before I had time to be upset about this, my heart leaped at the October 2017 announcement of a new Album, Offerings.
Offerings, which debuted January 12th of this year, was everything I hoped it would be. If I thought their previous albums felt like a collection of sun filtered memories, the description of Offerings by the band themselves was thus, "Imagine yourself at the end of your life. Your once expansive mind now wrapped tightly, exclusively around the present moment, give or take a few seconds. Memories — if you can call them that — visit you in fragments: scrap of song here, aching bone there". I feel like it's been a long time since I have heard such a definitive concept album, that I connected with immediately. Offerings is broken into four movements according to Typhoon: Floodplains, Flood, Reckoning, and Afterparty. It is an achingly beautiful journey, that feels like a novel turned into song.
The album is a little less rock than their previous work, but more lush and emotionally in-depth. the layers and intricacies of each song, honestly blow me away. I understand now why it's been five years in the making. When listening to the album, I find myself not noticing when one song ends and another begins. Though this could be off-putting to some, I find it a mark of how enrapturing their music is. With that said, I will say my favorite songs on the album are: Rorschach, which feels the most like Typhoon's earlier work. Remember, a song that has some of my favorite Lyrics on the album. And Coverings, which features Shannon Steele on lead vocals.
Rorschach by Typhoon: youtube.com
I Have not had the pleasure of seeing Typhoon live, but one of my dear friends Anna, recently attended one of their concerts, and had this to say of her experience. "So seeing Typhoon live reminded me that even after the most difficult year, knee-deep in grief, there are still some things that I will find overwhelmingly beautiful. Typhoon was one of those things. That show, in a way, called me back to myself."
Anna's experience, is a perfect example of my favorite thing about Offerings, and Typhoon as a band. They have the ability to grab right on to the emotional center of any situation, and put it into an enveloping experience of a song. they don't omit the heart breaking things in life, but illuminate the beauty that surrounds all of those moments.
Thanks as always for reading, and I dearly hope you go listen to Offerings and Typhoon's other works, and find that same beauty.
