Jeffrey Runnings was the driving force behind the early Nebraska post-punk and dream-pop outfit For Against. He was the only constant member throughout five decades and until his death from cancer this year. He tracked the songs on this LP via an old eight-track cassette machine, and it captures his more calm approach to songwriting, and is accompanied by an EP of rare tunes he recorded in the late \u201980s.<\/p>\n
The textured haze of the key friendly \u201cBatman Forever\u201d begins with much raw beauty, and \u201cJust Before Nothing\u201d relies more on thumping drums and bass acrobatics with strong attention to mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cMayfair\u201d lands closer to the middle and comes with some chamber ideas, while \u201cBloom\u201d swirls with an \u201980s post-punk ambience of gracefulness. \u201cThe Courage Of Voluntary Trees\u201d then allows for the meticulous guitar to radiate alongside the melodic rhythm section. <\/p>\n
Closer to the end of the LP, \u201cGlorious Grey\u201d pairs the synthetic drumming with sophisticated keys that are heartfelt, and \u201cElegy\u201d finishes with a blurry and rich version of dream-pop. <\/p>\n
The EP\u2019s tracks are excellent, too. \u201cFollow\u201d resides in more ominous areas of cinematic swells, but it\u2019s the dense bass playing and manipulated vocals of the hypnotic \u201cLight Of My Life\u201d that makes the entire package a must for fans of anything related to the 4AD Records catalog.<\/p>\n
Runnings played bass, sang and was the primary songwriter for For Against, which released albums from 1987-2009. This posthumous release comes in an oversized die cut jacket that\u2019s been letterpress printed by hand, and allows for the post-punk cult legend to impress us in home recordings that are eloquent and largely serene. These tracks were never meant to be released, but Runnings never stopped documenting his work, and it serves as a wonderful way to bookend a phenomenal career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":35371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[11128],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-47266","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jeffrey-runnings","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47266"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}