Swimming through the waters of everything that makes one human, ‘The Dome’ by We’re in the Water is a greatly done conceptual album.
The first track of the album ‘Fresh Air’ starts off with a sound that you do not see coming at the slightest. There is something deeply meditative in the track’s overall production, despite its darkwave, industrial sound. The track captures the idea of restarting, of renewal in a conflicted world. Taking it from there is ‘Jugglin’ which keeps up with the industrial sound, but moves away from the darkwave elements. This track banks on a near-hypnotic sound that sort of seeps into your mind and churns it, as it talks about unreciprocated love and the juggles it causes in our heads and hearts. ‘Desert Island Bed’ which is the third track on the album, brings to you an interesting amalgamation of genres, as it features bright piano and violin notes and mixes it up with electronic beats and synths. The track is all about chaos in the perfect amounts which brings about a magnetic rhythm. Keeping the enchanting violin notes, ‘Forty Years On’ stays on track with the unique blending of electronic and neo-classical modes of sound. There is a narrative, theatrical quality to this song, as it moves at its own pace and pulls in the listener in its soundscape.
‘Tightrope’ which is the next track on the album maintains its electronic synth pop sound and sheds the violin notes, but keeps the theatricality alive. Starting off in an enigmatic manner is the next song which is ‘Permanent Frown’ and you soon realise that the sound of the song stays true to the essence of the title, with its dark, heavy production. ‘We’re in the Water’ starts off with a slow, hypnotic beat layering and then picks pace and is driven by a jumbled, chaotic electronic synth pop sound. Bringing back the violin notes is the next track, ‘Bankrupt’ which has an ethereal, unreal quality to it, and transports you into a world where things are not what they seem like. ‘Being Eaten’ starts off with a narratorial voice, making you feel like you are a part of a theatrical production, and then it moves into a narration that is heavy with metaphors and images. The next one on the record is ‘Closer Than My Wife’ which positions itself, thematically, on a sensitive, vulnerable spot. ‘More Love’ starts off in an otherworldly manner, and makes you feel like you are being lifted off into a world that is largely futuristic. The last song on the album ‘The Dome’ feels like a closing off, a tying of the complete album, both in sound and theme. The tones in the song are of the low type, and make you think of someone caving in on themself.
A brilliant conceptual album, this one deserves a listen that is characterised by undiverted attention.