Rock albums — even some of the better ones — often come across as a semi-arbitrary collection of songs, so big props to the Honeydogs’ Adam Levy for being ambitious with his art. Already the owner of a very worthy canon of literate Jayhawks-meets-Beatles pop songs, Levy takes his style and vision to the next rung with 10,000 Years, a sweeping, sci-fi-tinged rock opera built for these not-so-glorious days of global and societal unrest and decay.
10,000 Years is a grand, vivid collection of songs with a palette expanded to including cabaret, Brazilian rhythms and Middle Eastern flourishes (albeit somewhat meticulously overproduced, thus deadening some of its emotional impact). Words, too, are colorful. Levy draws on his poetic leanings and his past experiences as a social worker to get the job done, as well as, perhaps, a steady diet of The New York Times. To wit, 10,000 Years is about those lost on your city’s street corner, about those lost in the trenches of war, about those simply trying to make sense of it all. It might be Levy’s attempt at interpreting Marvin Gaye’s landmark 1971 social statement, What’s Going On.
Yes, there is a greater arc to 10,000 Years. Perhaps it’s ultimately a plea for an end to the type of suffering that this modern civilization has bestowed upon its people (as Levy sings in two different songs: “Can we please say goodnight to the last 10,000 years?”). Perhaps not. That it’s up for further investigation suggests one of the album’s potential greatest charms — an enduring, continually unfolding experience — and weaknesses — the feeling that you need an MFA to best enjoy it. I mean, what the hell is the “the beneficent hygiene of war” anyway?
Bring on the Cliff Notes.