The Salt Collective
A History of Blindness
Propeller Sound Recordings
Back on its feet again, survival instincts intact and hopeful for better days ahead, The Salt Collective and friends — a veritable who’s who of indie artists working collaboratively — return with the gloriously ambitious A Brief History of Blindness, painting expansive, and expressive, art-pop murals of vivid color, fiery flourishes, and sweeping wonder, while being unafraid of open intimacy. It’s all too beautiful, communal, and deeply human.
Debuting with the 2023 LP Life, The Salt Collective is the sound-designing playground of French guitarist-songwriter Stéphane Schück, who leads a core group comprising The Connells’ drummer Rob Ladd, The dB’s bassist Gene Holder, Let’s Active’s Mitch Easter on guitars, and Wes Lachot on various keyboards. Unlike sessions for Life, all the players were able to stick together, shuttling the whole operation from studio to studio, whisked away to North Carolina and Paris and various points in between, with the legendary Chris Stamey producing. The LP was mastered by Dave McNair.
A physician, too, who once stared death in the face and beat back a scary illness, Schück takes a life-affirming and philosophical approach to lyric writing, giving grace to mankind’s fallibility, while bombs of vibrant power-pop and chamber-pop ecstasy explode all around them. Fully realized arrangements, the product of maxed-out creativity, are lifted to soaring heights in grandiose blowouts like the blindingly brilliant title track – smart handclaps, full-throated horns, buoyant bass, and Lynn Blakey’s lithe vocals all caught up in swirling bombast, as she delivers a thoughtful existential meditation on how easy it is to completely miss the point of living.
Just as intensely immersive, “Waiting for the End of Time” was written by Schück, Stamey, and XTC’s Andy Partridge, and with Jason Falkner on lead vocals, it is a controlled, mellifluous cacophony bathed in light, and “Cloud to Cloud” is a daydreaming, deliriously catchy Matthew Caws delivered marvel that Nada Surf missed out on. Caws is featured on three tracks, including his inspiring duet with Blakey on a breezy “How We Breathe” and the lush “So Sad (Don’t Let Go),” with its flowering hooks and elegant string workouts.
Meanwhile, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and Blakey harmonize beautifully on the blissful, briskly paced “In the Shadow of the Moon,” which was influenced by a solar eclipse, and “You Swallowed the Sun” feels sunny, psychedelic warmth on its skin, celebratory trumpets raised in triumph. Part of The Salt Collective roll call here, as well, Aimee Mann comes a little closer on “The Waiting Game,” unimpeded by any wall of sound, spinning dreamily, beautifully exhausted and running out of patience. It arrives wearing melancholy like a dress and leaves in a cheery march, as The Salt Collective floats on, offering a tip of the cap to The New Pornographers and their parades of euphoric pop extravagance. Surprisingly cohesive, seeing what The Salt Collective is doing is believing.
