One Track Mind

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There is a lot to unpack about Alcoholic Faith Mission, from their The Knife meets Arcade Fire sound to the story of the band’s existence thus far. The group was founded by Thorben Seierø Jensen and Sune Sølund, two Danes who had headed west to the hipster haven of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after seeing a neon church sign for the Apostolic Faith Mission. (They surmised that alcohol was frequently a surrogate for faith, and the band name was born.) Since then, the duo has become a quintet with two full-length records under their belt: Misery Loves Company, which was birthed in Copenhagen after only three months, and last year’s 421 Wythe Avenue, named for the address of the loft where it was recorded.

Now Alcoholic Faith Mission is celebrating the release of their third album, Let This Be The Last Night We Care, which hit stores this Tuesday via Paper Garden Records. “My Eyes to See” is the second of twelve tracks on the new record and thoughtfully winds its way through a series of gentle bends. The track is robust both in terms of its shifting landscapes and in terms of the layered (though never overwrought) instrumentation. Synthesizers quietly dig away on the periphery, piano chords are sustained into silence, and the guitar parts here are not so much riffs as they are blurry gestures, their hazy edges allowing them to blend more seamlessly into the constructed mood. The vocals are what have definition on “My Eyes to See,” standing in a crisp juxtaposition to the musical tracks and preventing the overall tone from ever dissolving into something too amorphous. Alcoholic Faith Mission’s music feels fresh, enveloping, and perhaps even a tiny bit challenging, and “My Eyes to See” is four minutes well spent.