Music Analysis: “Everywhere at the End of Time” by The Caretaker
by Rayan Shahid, Staff Writer
Warning: this album can cause anxiety and depression while listening to it. Many users have experienced mental breakdowns while listening to this composition. I would not recommend this for the faint of heart.
Note: Names of stages and Art are key words from the description of each phase that I thought represented the Phase’s name or art well. There is no official name for the Phases or art.
Intro
Everywhere at the End of Time is a six-hour-long album that is a musical representation of dementia/amnesia. This album consists of 6 stages of identifying, experiencing, and accepting the fact that your memory is slowly peeling away before your very eyes. The stages range from mostly serene, straightforward 1930s/1940s-type music to represent the good times in life, to deranged static “music” which represents losing the ability to consciously make/remember memories.
Phase 1: Daydream
Phase one of this music is what could only be described as familiar old music. The calming instruments provide nice soothing music that is meant to instill nostalgia in the listener. However, there is static – which could be a motif for what is to come later – suggesting that although everything seems nice and relaxed, there is a layer of uncertainty on what’s to come. This stage illustrates that there is a mental problem, but not to the degree that it needs much worry yet.
Art: “The last of the great days”
The art appears to be a newspaper or roll of some sort, but there is no 100% clarity. This vagueness portrays this phase as still being able to distinguish illusion from reality, but there isn’t a complete grasp on what is happening. Thus, as I explained earlier, this phase isn’t completely free of pain, but the world is still recognizable from illusion. The person undergoing mind loss at this point might have some signs of what’s to come, but they are still able to live life to its fullest.
Phase 2: Denial
This phase is a continuation of phase one’s theme of “everything is fine,” but in phase two, the condition of mind loss is growing worse. More white noise, cuts, and blurs fill this album as this disease tears the brain, while the person undergoing this just seems to act like nothing is wrong with them. The faint 1930s music still plays, but it has become lost and dark. This stage has its darkness, but still carries itself as trying to make the current times last, for better or worse. Yet, despite the unnerving tone, this stage pales in comparison for what is to come.
Art: “Refusal”
This piece of art acts as a metaphor that mirrors the person going through memory loss. The flower’s vase is being essentially destroyed, unrecognizable, and distorted, yet the flowers are still alive and push through, much like the person undergoing memory loss. The flowers also seem to be growing in different directions which would mean their light source’s location is unknown, since flowers always grow towards the light they live under. This illustrates the flowers’ (and the person being affected) confusion as their mind is not fully “there,” yet they are both still alive and living like nothing is wrong – although just looking at them shows that they are living in a lie.
Phase 3: Reality
Reality finally begins to completely break apart as the cuts and blurs start to become violent and cover most of the songs completely. There is always a sense of pain and confusion and the person suffering this has realized their reality is fading. The best memories they have are still vaguely there, but it is slipping fast. The tone shift in this phase is dramatic from the last as the instruments have started repeating, overlapping, and fading; like memories trying to claw their way into remembrance, yet none reach the surface without error. Sometimes, there are complete cuts with no sound or slowed music which suggests the person is not only falsely remembering, but losing their ability to remember at all. This is the phase in which reality leaves and slowly only illusion fills the mind.
Art: “Broken”
The art is noticeably becoming more and more distorted as reality shifts to almost complete illusion, but there is still a hint of something tangible being there. This painting looks like a plant of some sort, but the brush strokes turned so violent and jarring it’s hard to make out what is really there. The mind, being unable to remember, has distorted itself so profoundly by this point that making out something as simple as this is impossible. By this phase, the person undergoing memory issues has to recognize what is wrong and enjoy their last time being able to recall the past, as limited as it may be.
Phase 4: Rupture
This is the first stage of finally accepting the fact that extreme memory loss is taking place, and by this point it is all too late. The music itself is now in the background as noise plays over it. Loud, distorted sounds plague the atmosphere with barely any sense (besides a faint melody). This phase is the beginning of a long ending for the patient’s suffering. Singular memories and serenity are hard to find among all the white noise and voices calling out through the distortion. Almost nothing vivid is left, and life feels like a blur with no beginning or end. Only the present, which drifts continuously with what feels like only pain.
Art: Confusion
This painting seems to be a portrait, but everything is lost. There is no sense of humanity left; it’s all been forgotten. Only a disfigurement of what once remained is present with only its shape being recognizable as human. This painting looks like it’d be someone with long hair, but their skin and hair is made of what seems to be some sort of ore-like material. A person devoid of memory might think a human could be made of rock with no human features. The person has no concept of what a human is and what they’re looking at. It’s pure confusion.
Phase 5: Horror
This is the most terrifying stage. there is nothing here besides vicious violent sounds and the music is killing the listener. Sanity is gone and all that’s left is pain and rupture. This phase is highly disturbing to listen to and sparks the most depression and anxiety. This is meant to replicate the feeling that everything is lost and nothing is left in the mind but pure horror. There are brief moments where humanity comes back, but then it all falls back into despair and darkness. The memory loss is at 100% effect now, and nearly nothing remains but slight callbacks – only to drown back into the darkness. The repetition in this phase is by far the most haunting thing as peace comes back for a few seconds, but when it all falls back it feels like hell breaks loose. The patient has nothing left, and it doesn’t even have a sense for when this is all over because time itself has been lost.
Art: Familiarity
This piece of art is by far the most abstract, which fits the most abstract phase. All sense of familiarity is gone and this album cover describes it as such. Nothing tangible or recognizable is really there, besides material and shape, and even then it just looks like nothing is there. Nothing recognizable and pure mental absence. Unlike the other covers, this doesn’t seem to fit the violence of the music as well, but this could be because any sense of acknowledging the violence has been wiped from the brain. All that’s left is abstractness with no reality on what violence or anger means. The mind is simply processing without any sense of familiarity.
Phase 6:
This stage is the finale. It is mostly a void of complete and utter nothing but noises filling the air. The “music” is not an extremely disturbing mind-killing sound – it’s just serene noise. This phase depicts the person suffering memory loss as they draw near to taking their last breaths. There is no horror: there’s just nothing left. As the stage progresses, instruments slowly pick up and some sense of the first stage comes back, but this isn’t the first stage, and those memories turn into complete and utter silence. The person suffering under this terrible case of mind loss has died. In their last living moments, they recalled the times they treasured most and succumbed to their disease. Finally, the person is resting and out of their misery.
Art: Nothing
This cover just looks like the back of a painting or something of the like, but that’s the point. This album cover is the most clear out of the six for a reason. The person knows they can’t recognize reality and all that’s left is acceptance, then death. They can’t recognize anything and they know in their last moments their mind is gone. Everything has been lost, and this “calm after the storm” is only calm for one reason, and they know it. Death is approaching, and in their last moments they recognize how far they fell. However, death follows immediately after and everything is over for the person.
Conclusion
This album has been one of the most terrifying, yet interesting forms of art I’ve ever observed. The intricacies behind every phase, every song title, every piece of art is astonishing and this captures mind loss in an art form that is unreproducible. The joy, horror, and acceptance through music perfectly captures the experience of dementia, amnesia, and memory loss in general. As much as this album is genuinely terrifying, it is a true work of art. My words can’t describe how amazing the composer of this piece is. “The Caretaker” truly wrote an astonishing piece of art for which I cannot adequately express my respect. If my review interests you, and you think you have the mental stability, I’d highly suggest giving this a listen in a non-stop 6 hour listening period, but please do not force yourself and make yourself stop if needed.
I’d like to end this analysis with a quote that embodies this piece very well: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” – Cesar A. Cruz
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