Manchester Orchestra’s ‘A Black Mile to the Surface’ is less of an album and more of an auditory film. It’s soulful and visionary tracks were designed from conception to flow smoothly into one another as if it were a single continuous movement, carrying the listener through a harrowingly beautiful narrative of life, love, darkness, misery, and ultimately, the search of meaning. Black Mile is Manchester’s most thoughtful, confounding, and meaningful work to date, its brilliance only emphasised by its grandiose instrumentations, thrilling intensity, and of course, Andy Hull’s signature heartfelt lyricism. Where this album shines most of all, however, is in its unique ability to tell a story; a story that never hesitates to dive into such themes of grief, anxiety, and hopelessness, but also faith, love, and the beauty of life. A Black Mile to the Surface gives meaning to art itself – and to experience the full extent of its indescribably beautiful narrative one must listen to the record in its entirety.
Act I
01. The Maze
Black Mile’s opening track is a sonic and lyrical masterpiece that effectively serves as an ‘exposition’ of sorts to the album’s first act. The Maze is a divine, soulful tribute to Hull’s daughter Mayzie and explores the beauties of life in even its first moments. While it’s comparatively much quieter than other songs across Manchester’s discography, The Maze is undoubtedly one of the band’s most lovely works. Accompanied by clean guitar tones, Tim Very’s echoing percussion, and predominant synths, Hull’s atmospheric vocals echo that of a tear-jerkingly beautiful Gospel tune. The Maze also introduces the listener to the record’s overarching theme – ‘There is nothing I’ve got when I die that I keep’ – a meaningful commentary on the brevity of the life, the things we leave behind, and how that gives the human condition its beauty and its meaning.
02. The Gold
In ‘The Gold’, we start to explore Black Mile’s central plotline. Set in the late 1930s in a mining town called Lead, South Dakota, The Gold follows the story of a woman whose husband works tirelessly in a gold mine to provide for his family. It’s a tale of heartbreak and struggles in a relationship; of how the stresses of life can often change an individual beyond recognition and the kind of scars that can leave not just upon an individual but upon his loved ones and the people he cares about. In a sense, The Gold also explores the struggles of leading a life of fullness and meaning – how life can often seem quite hopeless and even limiting under such stressful and difficult circumstances.
03. The Moth
Black Mile’s third track ‘The Moth’ is heaviest and most intense song off the album. The atmospheric and relatively dark rocker doesn’t hesitate to throw the listener right into the action, with a raw, heavy guitar breakdown right in the song’s first ten seconds. The Moth explores themes of starting anew, seeking something more than day-by-day monotony, and the challenges of rekindling a fractured relationship – ‘I want it all, I want it free, but nobody’s responding’, ‘There’s a way out’, etc. Additionally, The Moth also explores deeply religious and faith-based themes; the lyric ‘My entire life you’ve been obsessing with the light, but the closer that you get the further up you have to climb’ explores the idea of growing closer with God, yet also having to work harder as one suffers through a time of darkness. The Moth as a track is unique because it features two separate vocal tracks at the same time, which works almost to symbolise the inner conflict and the darkness that lies within oneself – that sort of grappling amongst one’s thoughts. The song also features Hull’s daughter Mayzie echoing ‘What about my future?’ Which only adds to the song’s sense of conflict.
04. Lead, SD
‘Lead, SD’ is the closing track of the album’s first act and, like The Moth, is a track designed to absolutely blow your face off. The track takes owes its namesake to the town of Lead – which serves as a recurring article of imagery throughout the album used to convey a certain sense of loneliness and hopelessness, but also the opportunity to reach that light at the end of the tunnel. The blandness and unchanging nature of Lead, it’s rough winters and the apparent linearity of time (The snow is piling up our temporary grid. It was just like this this time last year. There’s nothing in the wind, just white up to the trees, and its been that way for an eternity) serves as a source of anxiety when things DO begin to change and the world begins to shift. In a sense, Lead, SD grapples with the idea of coming to terms with change – change one’s life or changes in the people one surrounds themself with, and how that change can often be massively overwhelming – heartbreaking, for that matter. The track manages to deal with these themes through an atmospheric and almost upbeat rocker that seems to combine quiet, almost symphonic ballads with a strong progressive alternative rock sound.
Act II
05. The Alien
‘The Alien’, ‘The Sunshine’, and ‘The Grocery’ serve as the album’s second act, and in a sense they can almost be thought of as one singular movement given how seemlessly the three tracks flow into one another. The Alien is perhaps the darkest track on the album as it follows a man who attempts to take his own life by causing a car crash. In the chorus, our narrator repeats the line ‘Do you need me?’, in a desperate plea to God as he questions his place on Earth and the meaning of his life, having been through such agony. It is also a cry of desperation in this man’s darkest hour – a cry out to his loved ones, questioning if anybody still needs him. The outro is particularly dark as we begin to explore the narrator’s final hours of life – how the time has come for him to become at one with God in Heaven, and how at last he feels at peace. This then harkens back to the record’s overall theme, the idea that there is nothing one keeps in death, not even their darkest feelings of anguish. The Alien manages to set a tremendously depressing set of lyrics to a relatively laid-back, relaxing, and almost beautiful melody, which only adds to the heavy tone of the track.
06. The Sunshine
By contrast, ‘The Sunshine’ is perhaps the brightest track on the album. Where ‘The Alien’ dove into some of the darkest aspects of life and the human condition, ‘The Sunshine’ seems to be a celebration of life’s beauty, manifested in a father’s love for his child – his sunlight, his moonlight, his everything. ‘The Sunshine’ really explores the highs and the lows of life and stands as a reminder that it is ultimately the darkness of life that gives the light its meaning and beauty. The subject matter of ‘The Sunshine’ goes farther than Hull’s father daughter bond – it also may deal with a relationship or a close friendship; this sort of beautiful connection. Ultimately, it deals with this decision when faced with loss, grief, and darkness – do we revel in the darkness or do we search for the signs of beauty and purpose in life?
07. The Grocery
‘The Grocery’ is ultimately a struggle of faith, hope, and belief in God. It follows a man who chooses to commit an act of terror on a grocery store before attempting suicide. As a result of all the darkness this man faced, he chooses to commit a terrible act and take the lives of as many people as possible, possibly out of spite. Yet before he is able to commit this act, he turns to God in what seemed to be his final moments, yet at the same time he struggles with whether a God exists at all – whether or not there really is something that comes after death. ‘I want to reach above the paradox where nobody can see. Want to hold a light to paradigm and strip it to its feet. I want to feel the way your father felt, was it easy for belief? I want to know if there’s a higher love he saw that I can’t see.’ When the man attempts to take his life, he presses his gun against his lips and pulls the trigger and all the gun does is click. In this moment, the man has a kind of awakening – God saved his life and gave him a second chance at life, as if to say ‘it’s not your time yet’. By the end of the song, the man comes to terms with living his life in all its aspects. He comes to accept that life acquires its meaning through its ups and downs, through the good and the bad – it is only a matter of searching for that beauty that he might achieve peace.
Act III
08. The Wolf
The record’s eighth track, ‘The Wolf’ is an earth-shattering rocker that serves as the opening to the album’s third act. Of all the songs on the album, ‘The Wolf’ best showcases the diversity and the depth of Manchester’s sound. Defined by Tim Very’s immaculate drum arrangements, Andy Prince’s atmospheric basslines, and Robert McDowell’s heavy, raw guitar sound, ‘The Wolf’ is where the band’s divine instrumentation really shines. Lyrically, the song certainly does not disappoint. ‘The Wolf’ takes place during our protagonist’s ascent into the afterlife as he looks back on his life and through the lives of those closest to him. It starts a sort of conversation with the listener and provokes a harrowing sense of introspection – a conversation about the lives we live, the consequences of life’s decisions, and finding purpose in trying to be better. The line ‘There is nothing you’ve got when you die that you keep. You were all that you were, were you all you could be?’, harkens back to the album’s overall theme and presents a question to the protagonist; was he truly everything he could have been? Once again, this invokes a sense of introspection in the listener as they begin to question that same dilemma of themselves – are they truly becoming the greatest person they could possibly be?
09. The Mistake
‘The Mistake’ most evidently showcases Andy Prince’s creative magnificence as his atmospheric bassline takes centre-stage. In a stark change of tone from the aggression and conflict of ‘The Wolf’, ‘The Mistake’ is a reflective and soulful ballad tells the story of a relationship coming to an end – whom exactly this relationship is between is, quite brilliantly, left up for interpretation. In a sense, it explores the kind of silent heartbreak that comes with the end of a romantic relationship – the lines ‘I don’t want to walk away from you’ thus coming to symbolise a crippling yet unavoidable reluctance to let go of someone you love and the pain that comes with having them walk away. Later in the song, Hull’s soulful ‘WOOO!’, might seem rather out of place at first, but with further listens it comes to represent a desire to escape – to ignore one’s problems and to be lifted from the kind of misery that comes with such a substantial heartbreak. It can also be interpreted to mean the end, or at least the straining, of a relationship with God; in which case ‘I don’t want to walk away from you, but you let me’ comes to symbolise a kind of turmoil that comes with turning away from God. The song also harkens back to the album’s overall theme with the line ‘Everybody’s got their day, so number wisely if you know what is best for you’ which is to say; make the most of your life while you still can.
10. The Parts
To compliment ‘The Mistake’, ‘The Parts’ is a peaceful acoustic love song that explores the beauties of love, marriage, and the birth of a child. The calm, gentle, and soothing acoustic guitar serves as the perfect accompaniment to Hull’s sweet and heartwarming vocals. In the song’s lyricism, Andy explores the beauty of a genuine, committed relationship, and how heavily that contributes to the story of one’s life.
Act IV
11. The Silence
Black Mile’s intense, emotional, and epic closer ‘The Silence’ could be considered the record’s fourth act in its own right and is by the strongest, most impactful track off the album. It serves as the perfect summary of everything Manchester Orchestra is as a band; it’s loud, intense, raw, and genuine, coupled with perhaps the most beautiful writing of their career to date. The track itself is rather simple in its auditory construction with relatively basic chord progressions and simple rhythmic patterns, yet Hull’s vocal delivery, Very’s powerful drum arrangements, and Prince’s nuanced basslines work together to deliver such compelling emotion through an impassioned, almost orchestral movement that defines artistic masterpiece. Additionally, ‘The Silence’ manages to effectively draw Black Mile’s soul-stirring narrative to a brilliant resolution. The continuing reoccurence of the album’s overarching theme, ‘There is nothing I’ve got when I die that I keep’ in ‘The Maze’, ‘Lead, SD’, and ‘The Wolf’ worked thus far to provide a tremendously meaningful commentary on the human condition with regards to the meaning of life and what one leaves behind in death. This conflict culminates in ‘The Silence’ where Hull writes ‘There is nothing you keep, there is only your reflection’ – which is to say that while there is nothing we take with us in death, what we do in life matters because of the impacts we leave on places and, perhaps most importantly, on the people around us. The beauty of life lies in the stories we tell through our experiences, our memories, and our creations; and while the individual may succumb to the embrace of death, the reflection of the self forever lives on in the hearts of loved ones who are able to continue the story. ‘The Silence’ calls upon each and every one of us to ‘never waste away;’ to live every day to its fullest; for one never knows when it might all be taken away.
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