The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time - Stages 1-6

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Anyone listen to this before...and all the way through? Anyone ever heard of it? lol

 

It's basically supposed to be a musical representation of the six stages of a deteriorating mind. I'm in the process of taking it all in in one sitting, uninterrupted. Just finishing up Part 1...music is very melancholy and gives the feeling of something you've heard before. It's also a bit creepy at times, like something that would play during a ballroom flashback scene in The Shining or would be played in the distance while you walked around Fort Frolic in Bioshock. Full disclosure: both my mom and dad suffered from dementia before passing away, which does play a role in my decision to give it a go. But it was mostly because I was in  one of my strange-things-found-on-the-internets benders and stumbled upon this. I'm also on part 2 now...music does feel different in an unexplainable way.

 

One review/description:

"The idea of The Caretaker’s Everywhere At The End of Time is straightforward enough, but it is such a lengthy, emotional journey that is executed with so much love and empathy that it’s impossible not to be affected by it. Released over a period of three years, it counts six different stages of mental decay, which you can experience yourself through his music. Technically, it’s six albums but they work together like… let’s say Star Wars movies would?

Everywhere At The End of Time begins innocently enough with swelling, melancholic ballroom music buried under reverb and glitching effect, like it’s coming from an aged vinyl. When stage two kicks in, the music becomes more distant and discordant. Stage three starts breaking the songs down and soon enough, you start struggling to hear notes under reverb and static nothingness. You start struggling to remember melodies you just listened to.

I’m not spoiling stages four, five and six, but prepare your loins.

What makes Everywhere At The End of Time so unique and exciting is that it coerces you into feeling empathy for one of the most difficult conditions to relate to. When Taylor Swift writes about a nasty breakup, you relate because SHE understands how you feel. When The Caretaker wrote Everywhere At The End of Time he didn’t want to relate to you. He wanted you to relate to people who cannot possibly explain how they feel."

 

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I can't even begin to explain this...damn. Stopped once to use the bathroom. Other than that, it was one long continuous listen. Last 5 minutes are a jolt. The rest is just a gradual slide into confusion, uncertainty, and even fear.

 

At one point I stopped during Stage 5 and listened to about 20 seconds of the very beginning of Stage 1 again...then jumped immediately back to the middle of Stage 5. That was a gut punch...