Mark McGuire – Along the Way

Mark McGuire
Along The Way
Dead Oceans
★★★

Along The Way is a journey. There is no beginning and no end, just movement forward. Mark McGuire’s album transcends time. Songs change and transform as if they breathe a new life every time you listen to it.

When I first put this album on, I did not have much thought into it. When the music began to take shape, I quickly wanted to know, “Who is Mark McGuire?” His own personal journey landed up here through ways of Cleveland-based drone band Emeralds. The group was experimenting with meditative qualities that carries through and is an important part to McGuire’s solo career.

Along The Way is a Confucious conceptual being that follows the inner journey of an individual (perhaps McGuire himself) seeking definition and enlightenment. The album plays through like an Andreas Vollenweider album or some ‘70s New Age utopia.

Unless you are paying close attention, the songs bleed into each other with flawless transitions. Often times you get a spiritual ambience while others perk up to present a wide array of instrumental pieces.

Mark McGuire – The Instinct

The album is long…very long, and that’s a good thing because it gives you all the time in the world to get lost in his extravagance.

The way is pathed with Asian ancient style, morphed into expressive ambient and analog dreamscapes. The mass foray of instruments used move around in lightning speed, yet the songs themselves flow like timeless antiquities.

I want to say this is a perfect album but it is not. There are some songs I find less enchanting as others, and to pluck out a particular song from this release is futile. What this does is make people engage in a discussion on the album as a whole and not pure randomness. And from that experience, it gives us new experiences and understandings.

Don’t be misled, Follow The Way is absolutely amazing. I have listened to this album in various scenarios: in the midsts of office work, intently for the purpose of listening to this album, when going to sleep, when driving down the highway. Whatever you do, McGuire is sure to give you terrestial adventures within inner peace.