Ilad, National Flags

I needed a CD to both fall asleep and wake up to. I have a feeling Ilad’s National Flags would give me nightmares, though, as dark and ambient as it attempts to be. I remember once I fell asleep to Wilco’s A Ghost is Born, and it gave me some pretty terrifying dreams. I’m musically sensitive, I suppose.

Anyway, there’s not much to mention about National Flags. It’s hard to tell where one song ends and another one begins. Each one has the same sleepy, depressed vocals and lazy drums. “Babel” is the only song that sounds different, and that’s because it’s a bunch of noise and sounds, more upbeat than the rest of the album. Sometimes I forget that the album is even playing, it’s so quiet. The vocals are mostly unintelligible, except for “D.O.I.,” which was apparently written by Thomas Jefferson; but who needs vocals with this kind of music?

It’s beautiful and well crafted enough, the album, but it just blends together into this monotonous, not-quite epic sound. Sometimes it sounds like it’ll turn into an interesting CD, but then it doesn’t. Think of Pink Floyd’s dreamier, darker songs and remove a little bit of their intrigue and you have Ilad. I could almost say they’re pinching Radiohead, but I don’t think that was their intention. I think they just want to put us to sleep. Maybe I just don’t get Ilad’s point.