
#25
Bodies Of Water: “New Age Nightmares”
[from Twist Again / Thousand Tongues]
I once described “New Age Nightmares” as a “Leonard Cohen sandwich wrapped around a tornado” and I’m sticking to that classification. On Twist Again, Bodies Of Water explore an incredible amount of musical terrain that would most likely break the spirits of a lesser group of musicians. From baroque pop music, gothic singer/songwriter, twee to “New Age Nightmares” distinct “sound of metal” feeling, the band did everything in their power to play with all the tools at their disposal.
As with the rest of the songs on the record, “New Age Nightmares” was a complete success. It’s sound is unlike anything else on the album and yet it still slips in among the rest of the soundtrack without a hitch. The deep baritone of singer David Metcalf’s voice in combination with his wife, Meredith Metcalf’s choir of backup vocals is completely hypnotizing as it lulls you into a false sense of calm and comfort before the complete storm of instrumentation that erupts at the chewy center of the song. It’s frightening, shockingly beautiful and eternally encased in ice.