“Freedom Blade,” by This Will Destroy You

Referential Analysis and Meta-Critiqué

Within the following I will attempt to reduce the recording of “Freedom Blade” by This Will Destroy You with a referential analysis. An interesting piece for an American instrumental post-rock band, “Freedom Blade” has elements of what might bring to mind the first moments of a morning. With an ethereal quality the music develops much like the collective energy of humans in the morning just before sunrise. Slow to start off; building as one moves from the unconsciousness of sleep into the full awareness of an awakened state, so does the music build in intensity and complexity. The rhythm has less of a driving motion as it does a presence that sets up a pattern and then continues throughout. This is like the very first inspiration that gets us moving and drags through to the end of the day--A consistent prodding on the psyche to move forward in time. The particular voicing seems important to this piece. In the bass and keyboard you can see the Sun as it steady moves forward with full intention of making an elliptical journey back to where it started. Just like the music in its entirety, we are no longer at the place in which we began and yet, somehow, we are exactly where we started. There is also emptiness behind the music that could be attributed to the instrumentation that gives it a translucent texture. The song screams to be called a soundtrack as the listener is forced to toy with visual representations of the delicate phrasing. This piece is presented in a way that lends itself to interpretation, which can be important when dealing with referential analysis.

Meta-Critiqué

If this analysis is even correct in its context then it becomes obvious that it is quite limiting in what can be said. In the analysis of anything, music or otherwise, it seems incredibly important to fully be aware of the “things” presence as a whole. Meaning its form, historical presence, referential meaning, and phenomenological contexts. It is very hard to talk about this critique because to be honest I am not 100% sure it is in the right context. The delineation between a Husserlian Phenomenological analysis and a referential analysis are still a bit unclear to me. In trying to do this critique, whether it is correct or not, seems to show that it is tow hard to have one without slipping into another. This is kind of a reiteration of what I said originally about not being able to properly analyze anything with out a total circular comprehension of the “thing” in question.