Big Red Machine has released their second album, ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?’, including artists  Ben Howard and Taylor Swift.

Rating: 3.5/5

If you are looking for a grand and theatrical album, you probably should not listen to ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? ‘ by Big Red Machine. However, this album does not need to be either grand nor theatrical. This album is a companion, a comforting soundtrack to accompany one’s darkest days.

With artists like Ben Howard, Anaïs Mitchell, Sharon Van Etten and Taylor Swift, the collaborative project created by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner is rich with stories and melodies. After Big Red Machine’s silent and subtle 2018 debut, this is a step forward towards musical greatness. Not that any of these artists lack greatness, anyway. Vernon’s warm and deep voice constellates solo songs like Reese and Hoping Then, the latter being the superior out of the two. With tools such as Vernon’s own Messina and The National’s typical drums and guitar reverbs, How Long… takes the shape of a group of friends coming together to make music, and not of the usual Bon Iver-esque, pretentious and complicated record.

Love stories and heartbreak

Out of all the collaborations present throughout this one-hour-long album, the one with Taylor Swift is the least yet more expected. After the global recognition and success folklore and evermore received, it is not a surprise Swift’s talent would work even on a broader project. In the romantic and melancholic ‘Birch‘ Vernon takes the lead, accompanied in the background by delicate and elegant harmonies. Swift owns ‘Renegade’, a pop-ish ballad about toxic relationships and heartbreak. “If I would have known, how sharp the pieces were you crumbled into… I might have let them lay”, Swift sings with such light-heartedness that it is hard to perceive the hurt behind these words. This is a recurring theme in this album: moving on. As the title preambles, we do not know how long this – it being life, relationships, health – is going to last. So might as well tell it like a story to every broken listener who might need a friend.

Everyone struggles daily. And Big Red Machine’s second album is living proof that music heals the deepest wounds. Dessner has shared, in multiple interviews, that he has struggled with depression and anxiety for the most part of his life. I do believe that the difference between this record and the first one – Big Red Machine – is that this is more centred around Dessner’s musicality, rather than Vernon’s. With songs like ‘Magnolia’; an elegant, acoustic duet with Vernon. Dessner shows off his vocal abilities in a storytelling manner. “Did you accept, he’s a demon? Did you regret? Did you leave him?” clashes with the previous “Did you forget? Did you grieve yet? Did you regret? Did you heal yet?” In How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, word play is recurrent and well accepted. 

A album about brotherly love and life

Alongside struggles with depression, another recurring theme is ‘Brycie’. Bryce Dessner is Aaron Dessner’s twin brother and bassist in The National. Alongside stories about heartbreak, there is a glimpse of hope, a sigh of relief present in this moving, intimate song. Everyone needs a companion in life and having a brother or a sister is one of the biggest blessings. Alongside Vernon’s comforting harmonies, a conversation is created, just like the one two brothers would have. This lullaby is quite repetitive but not tiring, I do consider it one of the highest points. Vernon’s voice is behind Dessner’s like an omniscient presence, ready to catch Dessner at every obstacle. Brotherly love is embodied by heart-warming lines such as “If I’m the sound, you’re the song”, which clench at the listener’s heartstrings and is released with a beautiful, smooth chorus. This song is worth the whole album, in all its simplicity. 

Vernon is known to take onboard young, unapologetic talents, and this was the case for Naeem. ‘Easy To Sabotage’ is a collaboration between Vernon and Naeem, in which Bon Iver’s influence is clearly palpable. With a heavy autotuned start, Vernon says “Well if someone tells you they can’t love you, you go the other way”, almost to signal a pep talk given to an imaginary daughter or friend. Naeem’s fresh influence appears during the bright chorus, when he screams, poetically “Laid out like a book you’re reading my whole mind”.

‘La Force’ comes at 8:22am, another ethereal and flowy track that shapes, in an almost indefinite way, the rest of the album. After all, every album needs columns to stand on. With a mostly electronic base, constellated by sax solos at times, it is a trip down memory lane, reminiscing a life full of “early morning flights” and friendships. It is interesting to see a timestamp in an album titled “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?”… Maybe, one day, at 8:22am, the world will come to an end. Life separates people, and as this duet describes, “Well it’s too sad, all of us together, this way… all of us, a feather away”.

Memories of a life together

Between the hymn dedicated to Frightened Rabbit’s late frontman Scott Hutchison – Hutch, featuring Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan and Shara Nova – and the disappointing yet comforting June’s a River – featuring Ben Howard and This is the Kit – Big Red Machine’s second album has brought many emotions to the table. It starts with the melancholic Latter Days, sung by Vernon and Mitchell, and ends almost in the same way; with ‘New Auburn’, still featuring Mitchell’s crisp voice. The final song talks about endless road trips, endless guilt towards all the tragedies happening in the world. It shows resilience and incredible self-awareness, with lyrics like “We were swimming out there under the heavens, we were too young to have been unforgiven”. This album is the epitome for existential doubt and questions and, ironically, just like the title, it ends with a question too. “Where do we come from? ‘Out of thin air’, I hear you whisper in the back of my hair”.

Final thoughts:

And just like that, everything remains untold. Because it is easy to whisper in the back of someone’s hair, but it is brave to write fifteen, unapologetic songs about the most delicate fragilities of being human. Is ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna last?’ a coherent, organic album? Probably not. Does it matter? Absolutely not.