Sky Hundred - Parannoul: Review
Review by Lavender:
Parannoul is a South Korean shoegaze project that caught fire online in 2021 following the release of their sophomore album To See The Next Part Of The Dream. That album hit me like a train, I loved it at the time and it's grown on me even more since then. Luckily Parannoul stays busy which led to an ambient side project and eventually a third record from the band called After The Magic last year. While I liked the record it didn't deliver the same kind of blistering intensity and uncompromising emotion of its predecessor. But I'm happy to report that Sky Hundred absolutely does.
While the most striking thing about To See is its thunderous sound palette, that isn't the only thing that makes it impactful. The album also features an absolutely brutal lyrical theme of self-depreciation, often to a genuinely painful extent. But even though the language barrier prevents me from understanding the poetry of this record in its full capacity, it's obvious that this is a far more optimistic record than any of its predecessors.
The first place on the album that really emerges is Maybe Somewhere. Lyrically the song reminisces on some difficult times in the past with similar malaise as To See. It uses simple but meaningful repetition to drive home the point that things can often be difficult but we all have no choice but to try. Lights Off Repentance may be the most up-tempo song I've ever heard from Parannoul with refrains that sound like they're pulled straight out of a 90s pop-punk song. It concludes with the again quite optimistic outlook that no matter what happens life will surely go on.
The record also ends its thematic journey with this unexpectedly positive outlook. Backwards is the brightest and most sobering moment of the entire record. It repeats over and over again that despite the hardships of life and the knowledge that one day we will all disappear, we continue to persist regardless. It preaches this even as the smattering drums and creaking distortion begin to completely fade around if for a memorable conclusion. Speaking of conclusions, closing track Fantasy really does wrap up this recurring theme of optimism. It mentions overcoming yourself and using a fall as motivation to get back up stronger. Despite ending on a surprisingly isolating note sonically the subject matter still hits hard as a finale.
Another recurring theme of the album is memory, the way it's fragile but can be so impactful nonetheless. Painless is an obviously poetic track, though I fear some of its nuance may be lost in translation. The song is about the memory of a past relationship fed through the metaphor of feeling painless while under anesthesia, though the literal role of anesthesia in the song seems a little bit ambiguous in the English translation. What's clear is how great the song is sonically with vocal layers that really heighten the emotion of the performances and some of the raw brash eruptions Parannoul does so well.
Evoke Me is the album's monster 14-minute centerpiece and unsurprisingly it's one of the most thematically dense here. It makes direct references to Parannoul's masterpiece White Ceiling like the eternally stopped clock and the motif of staring at the sky the same way that song deploys staring at the ceiling. It's explosive first section eventually falls into the kind of aimless self-doubt marked by prior Parannoul records. But it's sonically and compositionally dynamic as well with a second part that features clearer sung vocals and planky percussion.
If the record has a weak spot it's right out of the gate where the sound of the album is still largely good but it hasn't quite found its thematic footing yet. A Lot Can Happen kicks off the way many a Parannoul track in the past has, a blizzard of wiry noise. Unfortunately, the song feels so muddled thematically that it's difficult to find out what Parannoul is trying to say. When I first heard Gold River as a single its glistening chimes and My Bloody Valentine-esque dragging riffs. But the actual content of the song particularly on the verses never really grew on me.
While Sky Hundred may not be stunning in the same way that To See The Next Part Of The Dream was a few years ago, it's nonetheless an excellent record. In just a few years, Parannoul matured from cutting self-deprecation to a surprising optimism that acknowledges similar difficulties, but preaches perseverance. It also re-indulges in some of the dense sonic haze that I originally found so mesmerizing three years ago. What results is an album that does an impressive job of both filling the big shoes set out in front of it, while proving Parannoul is continuing to evolve artistically and more importantly, as a deeply vulnerable writer. 8/10
