Sometimes I’ll hear a song, and I’ll know right away that I love it. I can remember feeling this way after receiving The Tea Club’s album Grappling in my inbox and hearing the spirited and quirky opener “The Magnet”. I don’t always feel this way- some of my favorite albums were also slow burns; albums where I recognized a spark, but felt like there was more to uncover before the song revealed itself to me. Both experiences are gratifying, but the latter takes a little bit more investment.
The Tea Club’s latest, Chasm, is more of a slow burn to me- a dense, diverse, complicated album that reveals its brilliance over time rather than instantaneously. This could be partially because the last few albums from The Tea Club have had fewer, longer songs. It could also be that, from song to song, there seems to be broad, almost jarring tonal shifts- the beautiful and somber “The Bell Ringer” gives you no time to breathe before the apocalyptic and brilliant “Go To Hell” begins. The frenetic, almost manic “Get the Bullet” , one of the oddest and most interesting tracks on the album, is couched between two absolutely tender ballads, the delicate “Sonata” and the tear-jerking closer of the album, “The Lunar Eclipse”.
Also, there might be some adjectives like “whimsical” or “quirky” (you know, the fun kind of quirky) that I might have used on previous Tea Club albums, but Chasm has this noticeable melancholy and existential pain/confusion that permeates throughout every song. Even one of the few tracks that I thought might verge on whimsical, “Silicon Sally”, seems to have a sinister, nightmare-induced background, as explained on Dan McGowan’s Facebook page: “In December of 2020, I woke up from a very vivid nightmare that shook me to my core and continues to haunt me. This song and this music video was my attempt to process it.“
A perfect example of the wide-ranging dynamics of this record might be encapsulated in the song “Vineyard”, which starts off with ponderous lyrics and a mysterious tone, only to elevate into a loud, heavy, jarring section that ends with a big, bombastic, harmony laden chorus- only to die back down to somber silence.
Every time I listened to this album, I listened to it from start to finish. I think that also adds to the way I currently perceive the album. The dynamics from one song to the next definitely influence how they can be enjoyed as a whole, as a heavier song can sometimes be followed by a breather. For example, the ephemeral “A Small and Passing Thing”, a tune that might not fare well on its own, is situated between two more fiery songs, and it feels more contextualized than it might have on its own.
Having said that, there are a few songs that I think can be genuinely enjoyed on their own. The opener, “Like Little Soldiers”, is a perfect opening song for an album, and also a hell of a song on its own, with lively and distinctive instrumentation and chord changes, clever rhythmic choices, and killer harmonies on the chorus. “Ear on Arm” is an ethereal, magical tune that will get stuck in my heads for days. “Altered One” feels like the soundtrack to a midnight drive to clear one’s head, or the song for closing credits for a really thoughtful, introspective movie.
Chasm channels the existential confusion of our current decade better than any album I can currently think of, without taking any one modern theme on directly. Who could be intellectually/spiritually honest with themselves and writing positively cheerful music these days, anyway? Instead of making it a ham-fisted treatise, each song transports you to a new setting and set of characters and symbols, forcibly zooming in and out of the human experience, plane-shifting through symbols in forests, homes, and vineyards, past, present, and future. Like scripture, the lyrics present realities imbued with meaning and symbols and ask the listener to reflect and ponder. As an album, Chasm feels prescient and urgent and important, and is ultimately a very gratifying listen, even if it was more of a slow burn than an immediate love. It’s become one of my favorite albums of the year, and I highly recommend it for fans and newbies alike. “Come along, come along”!
The Tea Club released Chasm on November 24, 2025. Listen and buy here.
Proglodytes 