Album Review: Mutual Benefit Makes Musical Mysticism In “Skip A Sinking Stone”
Mutual Benefit Skip A Sinking Stone is, literally, the sound of nostalgia. Colorful rhythms ring throughout the record to make you feel like a vagabond that has chosen to stop, rewind, and recollect on his or her life’s journey, which is natural when you are trying to figure out how you have grown as a person. Skip A Sinking Stone is a nosedive in the mind, body, and spiritual frame of a person growing up, and realizing that the process to enlightenments is founded in suffering.
It is a theme that many albums have confronted, always with candor and a sense of dejectedness: growing up. For me, music is one of the only expressions to personify the clash of this process. We all should grow up and grow better, but, despite the goodness of this righteous path, it is not easy. Although growing up does not mean saying goodbye to your dreams, it can feel like that as harsh realities settle in to build barriers between you and your ambitions. Suddenly, the fantasies that came so easily to you as a child feel foolish and difficult to attain as an adult. Through folk-pop waves of iridescent lyrics and twilight synthetic keys, listeners will thank Mutual Benefit for creating a Skip A Sinking Stone. Moreover, they will understand how its particular title is far deeper than initially received.
There are two things I love about Skip A Sinking Stone, the spontaneity of its song’s compositions and cinematic meaning of its title. The whole record feels like a movie of someone’s spiritual self-discovery. Rhythmically songs can go from mystical to melancholy within the same track. Songs like “Getting Gone”, “Slow March”, and “Skipping Stones” feel like sonic explorations of the emotional ups and downs one can undergo in their everyday. It is as if the record, like a person, is divided into two sets: dreams and routine. In songs like “Lost Dreamers”, “City Sirens”. And “Fire Escape” synthetic keys and quiet piano hooks are used to exemplify the sadness of feeling like you are both living and accustomed to a life that is not your dream. To which, tracks like “Madrugada” and “Nocturne” have a more brightened sound to symbolize the moments throughout our day and night when we quietly allow our mind to drift into the ease and betterment we wish life could be. Throughout all these rises and falls of sentiments are the harmonies/ melodies of Jordan Lee.
Lee’s voice sounds soft like an innocent child lulling through life, which is perfect for Skip A Sinking Stone’s initiative. After all, what is the aspect of us that clashes the most with reality if not our inner child. Thus, his whispery, melodic voice fluidly rides through tracks until you realize that Skip A Sinking Stone is not a random album title, but a poignant phrase to what we all feel when growing up: like a sinking stone trying to skip across the river of life. For More Information On Mutual Benefit and to buy Skip A Sinking Stone Click Here.
