Captain, We’re Sinking – “The Future Is Cancelled”
Posted: by Sean Gonzalez
A year ago when The Future Is Cancelled was first released it kicked and screamed with fury, depression and anxiety. It’s an album that beckons to be yelled at and/or with, however one sees fit at that particular moment in time. It’s an album blessed with raw emotion, channeling extreme sadness to utter despair and rarely leaving that frame of mind. The pounding drums and even more frustrated sounding vocals are just bits and pieces of this dismal and bitter album. This was my first experience with Captain, We’re Sinking and the first impression never left me.
I recently wrote about the turning weather that is happening around parts of the world. Summer has past and autumn is in full bloom (and by that I mean everything is dying around us). For some reason the angst is brewing along with the chill in the air and screaming along to this absolute wrecking ball is a perfect match against the season. People might be afraid of the bone chilling nights with a long forgotten kiss of sunlight, but this is a record that adds a greater chill to your hairs, making them stand at attention, ready to take the world on.
It is the huge (and I mean extremely huge) choruses that break through the threshold across most of the tracks. The first track ‘Adultery’ is an assault of punk smashing through the mix with distressed vocals. The lines get stuck in the brain because of the sheer urgency met with speedy recoveries into softer parts. The images of absolute self-destruction is reinforced by biting lyrics like that of ‘Annina, We Will Miss You.’ Much of the album is a telltale album of wanting to recover but steadily falling into more of a downward spiral. The album builds on that over and over. Title track ‘The Future Is Cancelled’ is self aware of the misery by stating “Maybe I’d be happier if I didn’t think this way.” All of a sudden the song takes a dark turn and an explosion of stop and goes pulsate behind a devastating belt of a vocal line “DISAPPOINTMENT COMES SO EASILY TO ME.”
It’s not aggravation, at times the album is soothing, like ‘More Tequila, Less Joe.’ In a near ballad, a narrator is being pulled back into the worst of themselves. And honestly, that’s how the changing of seasons feel. A person can wake up and see a dark grey outside, all of a sudden the feeling of warmth is gone. It’s mornings like these that ‘A Bitter Divorce’ just makes sense. Add personal feelings to the mood of the song and it is a breakdown waiting to happen.
The Future Is Cancelled might be one of the most frustrating albums I have listened to. It is listenable and relatable. Captain, We’re Sinking sticks to you like bleach. You try hard to clean up but the smell is left lingering. For those hours after contact the melodies of the choruses stick to you. Each song has their own reflective property that is sure to bind and tie you with the grieving narrator of the album. It is a perfect fall candidate for music.
-Sean
