Even If You're Never Awake (Deuxième)
Shifting strings give way to clarinet, piano and a faint choir: the second released version of a piece first heard in 2004.
Stars of the Lid, from And Their Refinement of the Decline (2007)
- Written by
- Adam Wiltzie, Brian McBride
- Released
- 2 April 2007
- Length
- 9:20
- Album
- And Their Refinement of the Decline
An earlier take, Even If You're Never Awake (Version), opened Kranky's 2004 compilation Kompilation at 8:18. The second version, recorded for And Their Refinement of the Decline in Brussels and Los Angeles, is the eighth track on its first disc.
PopMatters described three minutes of slowly moving strings before a wistful clarinet melody and piano arrive, with the faintest strokes of choir at the close, and called it both the album's least consistent moment and one of its more intriguing. Beats Per Minute heard a wordless piece full of feeling, with a piano chord landing partway through like a lightning bolt. NPR's Lars Gotrich played it in his 2023 obituary for McBride. The upload in the hypersongs web is the album version, titled without "(Deuxième)".
Live
setlist.fm logs nine performances, from Whelan's in Dublin on 23 November 2007 to the Unsound Festival on 23 October 2009. Recordings survive from Manchester, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York.
On stage
- 2007-11-25, Urbis, Manchester Archived recording.
- 2008-04-16, Echoplex, Los Angeles Archived recording.
- 2008-11-21, Le Poisson Rouge, New York Wordless Music Series, with Hammock supporting.
More songs by Stars of the Lid
Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 1, Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 2
Sources
- Stars of the Lid: And Their Refinement of the Decline, PopMatters (2007-04-03)
- In Memoriam: Brian McBride of Stars of the Lid, Beats Per Minute (2023)
- Even If You're Never Awake: song statistics, setlist.fm
- And Their Refinement of the Decline, Wikipedia