Meme is the sound of the last taxi passing you by in the night and so you keep walking, pretending not to have noticed.
You realize it has gone, but maybe another will come and so you create a song in your head to pass the time as you walk into the darkness. Alone, you cross under orange, buzzing streetlamps, and step over greasy puddles. It is winter and you know that no matter how deep you tuck your hands into your pockets, you can't shake that dull, cold feeling. There is a void that penetrates layers because it comes from the inside like a burned out husk.
It is the sound of the city. Dumb, lifeless buildings flank your sides and tower above you. Streetlights flick on one after another, casting a hooded shadow in front of you and then behind. Meme sounds like rain pattering on your jacket or a breeze cutting through an alley. "My Life" groans with an overdriven guitar line and somber piano sounding very far off, or maybe overhead. If you could just look up to see it.
Most of all, Meme just sounds distanced. Not detached, but cautious.
It is after all, an exploration of loss and heartbreak. Prior to 2004's impressive debut, You Make Me Feel, Toronto-based electronica, singer / songwriter Milosh, had fallen in love. You Make Me Feel reveled in the joys of this new found relationship. Then they broke up...
Meme is the result. It resonates with pain, but refrains from sounding mopey or self indulgent. It's as if Milosh is seeing the world in a different, albeit darker light and presses on knowing that the road ahead is not an easy one, but must be taken in order to find himself again. Meme has made this journey beautiful and heavy and satisfying for the listener.
By the album's end, the closer "Playing with Yen", seems to signal a re-birth of sorts. Thudding beats and fuzzy synth lines seem to light the road ahead for his next journey into the unknown.
- Tyler Botts | 2006-03-28
