MOTORPSYCHO, THE ALL IS ONE

I was not familiar with Motorpsycho when I first sat down to listen to The All Is One. I also had no idea of its running time. Turns out that the album, the last in a trilogy by the Norwegian trio, clocks in at one hour and twenty-four minutes. It’s a good thing that I did not know or I probably would have never started listening. But honestly, when I got to the end, I was truly disappointed that it was over. I just wanted more. And I wanted to learn everything that I could about this band that has produced 24 albums over the past 30 years.

What struck me most about The All Is One is how completely immersive it is. The songs unfold with patience, shifting from expansive, psychedelic passages to intricate, progressive movements that pull you deeper as the minutes pass. It’s an album that asks you to slow down and give yourself over to it, and the reward is the feeling of being carried somewhere far beyond your surroundings. The music swirls and stretches, heavy and delicate in turns, and it leaves you with the sense of having stepped into another world.

Listening to The All Is One, I could not help but reflect on the truly epic albums that I listened to as a kid and absolutely devoured as they transported me someplace that I had never been. It is exactly what I needed this year...or any year.