Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You

Unwound were an alternative act active from 1991-2002. They were more or less a unique singularity amongst their peers, utitlising angular guitar lines, complex drumming patterns and shifted toward more atmospheric production aesthetics for their masterpiece and swansong (one of the best swansongs of all time).

At this point, I have to mention that I was introduced to this album by a good friend called spiritof77, on RYM. His real name was Mike and he was a writer and a poet with very little parallel, even amongst professionals. He passed away earlier this week. This is his entry on 'Leaves Turn Inside You'.

the smell of ash-spewing 18-wheelers passing you in late fall when the branches sound like glass as you cross over them and your neighbourhood is so cold that you can hear the sewage beneath your feet slow to a crawl with the approach of december. dead animals keep from rotting like sarcophagi of hair and teeth littered around the city in a first wave of eternal greying. sickness creeps. sickness is that halo of cigarette smoke that always seems to appear from nameless mouths in red that never quite speak in your direction. you go home and drink because it's all you can do to keep your blood from idling and turning your whole body to stone. words and impermanent shit you say to people in an ambiguous tone to keep from really letting the heart out of your cage and wishing you weren't such a coward later. wheat and tulips slipping into decay because fewer things are more final than another year of your life. it's touching hands in an endless crowd and wondering when the last time it wasn't one more stranger. it's realizing that the greatest affliction isn't cancer or AIDS but rather loneliness. it's when a ghost disturbs the veins of a tree and the leaves turn inside you.      


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