Horrible Occurences

Description

Horrible Occurrences is the title of Advance Base's new album. Across these songs, all centered on a fictional town called Richmond and featuring interconnected characters, you'll hear tales of death and disappearance, extreme confrontations, and unsolved mysteries. Richmond is a place "where all the bad memories live," Owen Ashworth explains, and nearly 30 years into his songwriting career, none of his records have matched the emotional intensity of this one. And yet, something alchemical happens in the telling of these stories. Like a masterful collection of short stories, Horrible Occurrences is inspiring and vivid, idiosyncratic and electric, and draws you closer with every word. Drawing on the otherworldly loneliness depicted in '80s masterpieces like Arthur Russell's World of Echo and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, the music never overwhelms Ashworth's detailed narrative, but it never feels auxiliary either. These are beautiful songs, but they leave their mark with their ability to strike dissonant, unforgettable emotional chords.