The Wheel's Still In Spin: Southeast Engine

A Wheel Within A Wheel

Release Date: 16 Oct 2007 (Misra)

A Wheel Within A Wheel by Southeast Engine is an album that with the issues and personal dilemmas that one encounters when it feels like the world is stacked against you. This album is grounded in establishing the ideals and foundation by which to live a confident life. But that's only if you delve into the lyrics. If you just listen to the music you will get washed away in waves of electric guitars, pianos, organs, strings, glockenspiels, catchy melodies, and pop driven phrasing. It's album full of themes and musical ideas that any listener can relate to and desire to hear again and again.

Download "We Have Your Surrounded" (mp3)
Download "Quit While You're Ahead" (mp3)

The Happiness To Pursue

David has been through a lot in the past year. While he has always been a skilled carpenter, he primarily worked in the home construction field. He hasn't had nearly as much work with the decline in new home sales. The sudden drop off of work came after the best peak he'd ever known. This past spring and summer were a time that tested his ego and pride, his strength and skills, and even his devotion and faith.

David is reminded of how unexpected his life has been. Full of peaks and valleys, rewards and challenges, there seems to be a cyclic nature to it. It cannot be controlled. Some of the hardest struggles he has lived through have led to the most gratifying decisions. He can’t help but think of these phases of his life as smaller sequences in his recurring life on earth. It’s all just A Wheel Within A Wheel.

The latest album by Southeast Engine is full of a diverse and dynamic instrumentation. The production is stellar. The layers of guitars and keyboards create a sound that brings to mind what Son Volt would sound like if that band was recorded by a producer with a strong regard for the later Beatles albums. The lyrical content worked perfectly as the soundtrack for David's struggles.

The opening track to A Wheel Within A Wheel, "Taking The Fall," begins with an onslaught of electric guitars and pianos before cutting back the instrumentation for the opening verse. The verses are accompanied with varying sparse pianos lines while the choruses attack with a wall of sound. Even in the quieter phrases, the song aggressively pushes forward. David, who always had steady work before the current financial and occupational drought, connected to the lyrics. "I've always done what I've wanted but now I do what I must."

Abruptly, the unexpected turns of life forced David to re-examine many of the aspects of his life. The one constant through all his personal contemplations was his family. His wife and his daughter were never questioned. As "Taking The Fall" concludes, the song declares, "We give up control/ Cause we are meant to be/ Though we're bound by absurdity/ Yeah where nothing means everything/ And everything is tied to you and me:/ Everything everything everything everything." Musically the song continues to build until it jabs with vocal "Ba-ba-badda"s.

When work was easy to get, David took most jobs he could, but he always made a point of placing his family first. Sometimes he worked 10 or 12 hour days, but he kept the weekends for Suzanne, his wife, and Holly, their daughter. Even though he and his wife used to make a point of going to church every Sunday, it had been about 7 years since they actively partook in Sunday service. Things slowly dropped off as work and weekend rest and relaxation became priorities. By the time Holly was born, the family just seemed too tired to go to church. There are always reasons to make excuses to make life easier, but eventually one begins to question what is best for a well balanced life.

Luckily for David's family, Suzanne had a decent job. Also, they had an established savings account. But with David's work thinning out, cutbacks had to be made. Until things picked up, the only way to be safe was to live in a minimalistic manner.

"If you want your life/ You gotta pay a price/ And if you want your kids/ You gotta pay a price," are some of the lyrics to "We Have You Surrounded." The song opens with a piano line. Like many of the songs on A Wheel Within A Wheel, each verse and section of the song offers different instrumentations and voicings. While this could easily create a sound that comes across as choppy and disconnected, the production of this album ensured that the sonic diversity sounds cohesive and continually evolving. Each part of this track builds, then almost unnoticeably turns into a new, catchier section. After a LFO, the catchiest part of the song bombards the listener with the lyrics, "Thanks for giving me the choice/ Thanks for giving me an open mind/ Thanks for giving me the choice/ Thanks for giving me my mind," with layers of background vocals, guitars, pianos, and cymbal crashing drums.

As the family finances were slowly dwindling, David started questioning the capitalistic foundation of livelihood. When the money was coming in, he never really gave it much thought. But now that the funds were tight, he wanted to provide for his family. He didn't want his wife to have to carry the stress of providing for the entire family. David began to doubt that he was going to be able to support his family.

Two songs on A Wheel Within A Wheel are tied together in subject and music. "Pursuit Of Happiness pt. I" starts with a countrified acoustic guitar picked line, but then the mood turns dark. The song almost sounds like a late John Lennon song given Sgt. Pepper's-era production treatment.

"Pursuit Of Happiness pt. I" ends with a repetitive piano interval that begins "Pursuit Of Happiness pt. II." Sustained piano chords are added with the vocals. As the song ends with the lyrics "We sell and barter everything that we're worth/ Our bodies move like a phenomenon/ We travel time as we circle the earth/ Where everything returns from where it came/ Where nothing stays the same," the album introduces the Giant Wheel Quartet with a beautiful string part in a Baroque style arrangement.

While Suzanne was at work, David spent his days looking for work and spending too much time with his thoughts and depression was setting in. His thoughts on the capitalistic society began to lead to more dangerous thoughts. He went from wondering why money was so important to survival to pondering the point of existence. It'd been a while since he'd been to church, but he'd always kept his belief in God in the back of his mind. It didn't dictate his daily life, but his faith was a grounded given. For the first time since he was a teenager, he was questioning God's existence. He started to wonder why any of us were - or most importantly why he was - alive.

The moving piano line that begins "Psychoanalysis" sounds whimsical. The song builds with subtle guitar riffs and brushes scrapping across the drums. The lyrics announce, "Some cataclysmic failure/ Will put you to the test/ And it could bring out the best in you/ It could bring out the worst in you/ Whatever it is it's you." David's battle with depression could be encapsulated in the lines, "The darkest light I've ever seen/ Throws shades of light outside my dreams."

As the days of personal time led together, David confidence decreased. He not only doubted his belief in God, he started doubting his ability to get steady work again. Like the lyrics to "State Of Oblivion," which is a song that is characterized by a dynamic barrage of electric guitars and bellowing drums, David was full of internalized questions. "I know I should remember but my memory is vague/ Have I experienced trauma?/ Have I created all my problems?/ I've created a charade/ My astonishment at life has faded away."

Months ago, David thought things were bad, but he finally felt he had hit rock bottom. He lost faith in himself, faith in his life, and faith in his beliefs. He once trusted that God would always back him up. One day while his wife was at work and his daughter was at kindergarten, David was lost in his own tears. The source of the emotional crying was unknown to him, but his determination was returning as he let go of his self-doubt. He realized he wanted to regain his life again, but he didn't know where to start. He wanted to provide for his family again, but he didn't know where to look for work anymore.

David got on his knees and turned to the first person he needed to ask for forgiveness. "When I was a child I believed in you/ What a simple thing for a child to do." The production of "Oh God, Let Me Back In" echoed the personal subject of the lyrics. It is a stripped down acoustic song with string accompaniment. The strings have a cinematic quality to them. Their purpose is to help set the tone, not define the melody. "I could see the sky and my mind was set/ I could feel ok when I was so upset/ But as I grew it was so easy to forget/ Oh Go let me back in..."

That night, after David had washed the dishes and put Holly to bed, he sat down with his wife. He explained the forgiveness he begged for earlier in the day. He apologized to Suzanne for putting her in a position of supporting the family. He told her that he was a dedicated husband, a proud father, and a skilled woodworker. While he had spent years working in the home building market, he was still an excellent craftsman. If new homes weren't being built, he wanted to pursue his original dream. He became a carpenter to create things. He wanted to use a small amount of their savings to build a custom furniture business. He wanted to build new, well crafted pieces. But most importantly, he wanted to provide for his family.

Before David and Suzanne went to bed, the carpenter played the final song of A Wheel Within A Wheel, "Let It Be So," and danced with his wife to the lyrics, "I met a girl many years ago/ And we promised to never let each other go/ We still haven't no no no/ Yeah we still hold each other true/ And we've become like two locked rings/ Like two lost coins that have been redeemed/ We lit every lamp and searched everything/ 'Til I belonged to her and her to me/ That was the moment we let the coiled wheel unwind/" and "Cause that's what I'm born to do/ I'm here to learn how to love you/ That's the happiness I pursue."

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