{"id":559,"date":"2011-07-19T05:03:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T10:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=559"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:50:16","slug":"album-review-anathema-were-here-because-were-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/19\/album-review-anathema-were-here-because-were-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Anathema – We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard about<\/em> this album a long time before I heard<\/em> it. We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em> is the eighth studio album from UK sensation Anathema<\/strong>, and it was released in May 2010\u2026in England. The disc didn\u2019t see stateside release until a full year later. While the group\u2019s earlier material is classified as death metal, the songs on We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em> couldn\u2019t be farther from that style.<\/p>\n

With a sound redolent of the more creative end of modern rock — think Porcupine Tree<\/strong><\/a>, The Pineapple Thief<\/strong><\/a>, Radiohead<\/strong>, Sigur Ros<\/strong> \u2013 crossed with the more adventurous end of (here\u2019s that dread phrase) classic rock \u2013 think here of Pink Floyd<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Anathema has crafted an enduring work that sustains itself across ten-plus songs.<\/p>\n

Not unlike Radiohead\u2019s OK Computer<\/em> in the sense that the songs tumble into one another, creating an overall effect without always distinguishing themselves as individual tracks, We\u2019re Here<\/em> provides the sort of dramatic flourishes that will keep a first-time listener\u2019s attention. Female harmony vocals add a warm ambience to the sweeping, amped-up-Coldplay \u201cSummernight Horizon.\u201d\u00a0 Stuttering yet insistent drum and piano patterns anchor the tune while vocal harmonies soar above it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDreaming Light\u201d is a highly memorable song, full of drama and yearning. Vincent Cavanagh<\/strong>\u2019s lovely lead vocal and an understated yet majestic melody conjures that waving-lighters-at-the-concert ambience. The track\u2019s shimmering lead guitar is a thing of beauty, and the song begs for repeat listens.<\/p>\n

That plaintive lead vocal and piano combination is a hallmark of We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em>, as is the female vocal harmony (courtesy of Lee Douglas<\/strong>). More than a mere collection of songs, the album defines a style and then delivers songs to fit it. \u201cEverything\u201d is only a notch less immediate a number than \u201cDreaming Light,\u201d but again it blends the album\u2019s trademark elements into something very appealing. There\u2019s plenty of guitar here (and throughout the album), but the instrument is used more as an ambient element, providing texture more than the actual melody (piano and vocals take care of that).<\/p>\n

The synthesizer pads, organ, ghostly guitar figures and spoken-word of \u201cPresence\u201d call to mind the ambience \u2013 if not the actual sound \u2013 of Wish You Were Here<\/em>-era Pink Floyd. Some beautiful string work only enhances the tune, as Lee Douglas adds some spare lead vocals.<\/p>\n

The melody of \u201cA Simple Mistake\u201d unfolds slowly, but once it does, it creates something quite appealing. Lee Douglas\u2019 vocal countermelodies add a layer of subtle complexity to the song. A more progressive and harder-edged arrangement takes over for the song\u2019s second half; somehow the transition to the chunkier delivery comes off as wholly natural.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet Off Get Out\u201d stakes out a lyrical and arrangement style similar to Blackfield<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s \u201cGo to Hell,\u201d but folds more melody into the mix. The song builds to spotlight some dramatic guitar work. \u201cUniversal\u201d paints a sonic portrait of sadness and desolation; sweeping strings and soaring harmonies come together nicely. And like most of the tracks on We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em>, the song develops \u2013 goes somewhere \u2013 and takes the listener along.<\/p>\n

The ambient sounds that kick off \u201cHindsight\u201d again recall Pink Floyd, but not in a derivate manner. The song unfolds to reveal a soaring guitar solo of the sort one might expect from Steven Wilson or David Gilmour<\/strong>. It goes on and on, yet it never threatens to overstay its welcome. The song — the album\u2019s closer \u2013 fades away, taking its sweet time to do so.<\/p>\n

Three bonus tracks are appended to the US release of We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em>. The demo mix of \u201cAngels Walk Among Us\u201d doesn\u2019t sound at all unfinished, or less produced, than its official counterpart; it\u2019s just different, and equally worthwhile. The same is true of the demo mix of \u201cPresence.\u201d Here the spoken word part is dialed back, and the static, Eno<\/strong>-esque melody is brought forward. (It\u2019s also in a different key than the official version.) The demo mix of \u201cA Simple Mistake\u201d is inferior to the official version, and suggests a work in progress. It\u2019s still nice to have, providing as it does a brief glimpse into the development of the album.<\/p>\n

Reliably precise, warm and clear mixing from Porcupine Tree\u2019s Steven Wilson<\/strong><\/a> no doubt makes the band-produced We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em> even better sonically that it would have otherwise been. Anyone who got on board twenty years ago when the Liverpool band debuted may well wonder what ever happened to that aggressive, angry band. The answer seems to be that they grew up. We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here<\/em> subtly incorporates some of the sensibility of Anathema\u2019s hard-edged past into a highly melodic work that will remind older listeners of what was (and remains) so special about \u201calbum rock.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard about this album a long time before I heard it. We\u2019re Here Because We\u2019re Here is the eighth studio album from UK sensation Anathema, and it was released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30943,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/30943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}