The selection was chosen by both Gen X dad and Gen Z son.

Gen X dad says:

The first time I heard Godspeed You Black Emperor! was while watching the 2003 film 28 Days Later. I’d known about the group, which formed in Montreal in 1994, for a while, but had never listened to them. East Hastings, from their 1997 debut album F♯ A♯ ∞ was on the soundtrack and I was quickly drawn their post-rock style and sound. I think quite a few people discovered GY!BE via that film.

The group’s name is taken from a 1976 Japanese documentary on motorcycle gangs by Mitsuo Yanagimachi. G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is their seventh album and follows 2017’s fantastic Luciferian Towers. The album consists of four tracks spread across a 12-inch and 10-inch record. Listening to the album in the implied sequence (from the CD version) requires switching between the A and B sides of each record. See the track listing at the right for reference.

GY!BE has always excelled at creating towering epic soundscapes of brutality and beauty tinged with both oblique and direct references to current political and culture events. G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is no exception. Alternating between moments of despair and joy, brooding and elation, this album might be GY!BE’s most cohesive and successful effort yet.

Perhaps it is unavoidable that art recorded and released during the pandemic is framed in that context. Side B of the 12-inch record took me through the past year or so with its climax (ASHES TO SEA or NEARER TO THEE) serving as an unexpected moment of catharsis. I was in tears as the record slipped into its clangorous locked groove, which served as a fitting and startling switch back to the present.

A definite addition to my top 10 for 2021.

Gen Z son says:

While it may not seem like it, especially because I’ve adored artists of any genre, from rap to rock and everything in between, there are a couple of albums and artists that I haven’t fully taken the time to appreciate. Sure, taste in music is subjective and all, but it feels like every time I see a meme about how indie folk band The Microphones’ The Glow Pt. 2 gave someone a breakdown, I get the feeling that I’m missing out on something.

To get around this, I created a bucket list of albums to listen to and artists whose discography to “dive” into. It’s got everything from the previously mentioned Glow Pt. 2 to Curtis Mayfield’s score for Superfly, to the feel-good electro-pop of Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion. So when Gen X Dad suggested that we review the new Godspeed You! Black Emperor album, G_d’s Pee at State’s End!, I immediately accepted the offer due to the band being on my bucket list.

For those that don’t know, Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a post-rock band from Montreal. They’re well known for classic albums such as 2000’s Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, but may be even more well-known for supposedly releasing an album called All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling that was allegedly limited to only 33 copies. The full album has never been heard in its entirety, and it is unknown if it actually exists.

On G_d’s Pee at State’s End!, the band continues their whole get-up used on previous albums, with the “tracks” being many in one, forming a sort of suite. Normally, the suite is given a name such as “Storm” or “Antennas To Heaven”, but this time, the song titles are the titles of the movements, all written out, separated by only a slash. These suites are then followed by much shorter tracks.

The sound of their music, however, stays the same. We enter the first track with a distorted, warped vocal sample (probably a speech given on a walkie talkie). This continues on for some time until we get to the grinding, aggressive instrumental rock parts that happen next. This ends with a fake-out after some seconds of silence – a haunting soundscape consisting of outside ambience and explosion noises (or gunshots?). This is then followed by the tumultuous Fire at Static Valley, which is driven by fuzzy guitar sounds and a beat made of only a bass drum.

The second suite consists of the same conceptual opening as the first – a speech consisting of some of the only lyrics on the album. The instrumental rock part opens with rapid, fast-paced drumming reminiscent of fusion jazz, before becoming a slow, bleak sort of ballad for no-one. The ballad ends with a droning guitar before slowly building up to a more brighter, fast-paced movement that is exactly what AllMusic writer Paul Simpson describes it as – “easily the most ecstatically triumphant music GY!BE have ever made”. The piece ends with blaring, distorted bells, and the closing track Our Side Has to Win (for D.H.) finishes off the album with a drone piece reminiscent of some of the more ambient sides of Sigur Ros.

In conclusion, G_d’s Pee at State’s End! is yet another great entry in Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s catalogue. Not only are the songs engaging, they also make you emotionally invested in the album. The whole thing is 52:38, but feels like only 30 minutes – for me, that’s a sign of a good album. Now it’s time to dive into their other releases; I really liked this one, so I’m assuming I’ll enjoy the others!