Promotional releases usually come in coverless jewel cases, delivering anonymous discs with generic labels. Descriptions on the back read like corporate apology letters, and are duly ignored. Names are named and, unless already relevant, forgotten. If and when the disc finds itself in a drive, there is realistically little context that you take on before dipping your toes.
But sometimes, such mundane presentation and forgone first impressions issue greater cause in the scheme of the content itself. Once you press play, literally anything could emerge from the speakers. You only know that someone deemed it worthwhile enough to create, press, package, and ship to listeners all over the continent, despite such ambiguity. The fact that this disc made it all the way to a playback system proves great trust between the creator, listener, and the endless supply chain along the way.
“Awakening” softly swivels into action, lifting one from slumber into an immense bustle that somehow remains peacefully organized among what appears to be chaos. The sun rises over a metropolis that operates calmly at miraculous speeds. Tracks seamlessly zoom into manufacturing montages from How It’s Made, and time lapses in SimCity 3000. Faceless characters inhabit white disinfected environments and boast such great dental work. Or maybe it’s inherent, along with their correct posture.
Deeper in Along the Way McGuire’s music remains nearly as ambiguous and perfect as the presentation of the package it arrived in. Conflict is seldom served, sometimes making moments feel fit for corporate underscore, to be completed with the watermarks of a stock music web sampler. It only swerves from such territory as brief voice clips and vocal passages weave in and out of the heavily layered backings. I begin to figure that this music was borne of emotions more subtle than simple nostalgia for technological optimism.
But at the same time, all is clean and generally inoffensive. Everything is in order. Everything in good taste. A large boardroom has unanimously approved, and you may employ it alongside company branding.
And yet somehow, Along the Way doesn’t intend to furnish the anonymity offered by perfectly calculated music or its standard issue press package. It’s apparently sold with an extensive set of personal writings by McGuire on discovering “the inner self”. Such discovery is supposedly outlined by 4 distinct movements formed by the album’s 13 tracks. I assume it also has an album cover and unique cd label as well. But is any of this necessary? Without the intended context, it was subject to much more personal interpretation and imagination. Once I’ve taken ownership of that, would I dare spoil it with the artist’s intentions?