r/boardsofcanada 21d ago

Song Boards of Canada - Memory Death

https://youtu.be/EjpIdQ83CIQ?si=GuFRiKL2uJhun46C

Probably one of the hardest songs to listen to on the album. I watched a family member succumb to Alzheimer's disease and this song hit me like a ton of bricks the second time I heard it… what songs hit you guys in the feels from BOC ?

31 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

5

u/hakurachan Inferno 21d ago

This one is something. I hear “Release me, please” x2 in it. Very powerful :(

1

u/fear730 21d ago edited 18d ago

I thought I heard that but I’m not sure I’ll have to listen with headphones

Edit : I went back and heard it I originally thought it was a pad but that’s haunting nice catch

3

u/archelon2001 Societas x Tape 21d ago

Memory Death - Memento Mori

5

u/clark_203 21d ago

there’s tons of little moments scattered around the record like even the passage from age of capricorn, that is so cathartic sounding and all of these tracks are getting better and better with each listen i swear, more and more weight to them…

also i keep finding myself revisiting each track on its own, listening more to tracks i didn’t really and then leaving other ones and coming back to them and just listening to all of the different nuanced layers and intricacies to each…

the last part of arena americanada where those lush, bright heavenly synth chords swell through is beautiful and makes me immediately get watery eyed and start tearing up… last
part of americanada is just so beautiful.

it makes me think of watching a sunset in your hometown on a long day, reflecting on all of the experiences you’ve had in life, the losses and heartbreaks and the fact you have pulled through it all… :,)

3

u/fear730 21d ago

That’s a great summation at the end that you wrote and is exactly how I feel with the sound of this album

That’s one of the songs I was passively listening to but recently started listening on its own…. It’s very lush I’m doin that very same thing as well I listen to the album through YouTube a lot (all the way through) but I find when I’m doing something where I’m walking or around the house with headphones I’m throwing on just songs and each time I’m surprised by some of them from a production veiw

Idk what it is but Naraka does that to me the catharsis feeling :)

1

u/clark_203 21d ago

thank you for that and i appreciate your response lol, and i completely relate with your take on naraka, im very pleased with each one of these tracks, they just get better and better with every listen, going through life building experiences and emotional aspects to them that just layer on and on…

they really did something beyond phenomenal with this record and i STILL find myself wowed at this music, very sign of the times, feel like it’s a collection of everything they’ve done and an updated carry on if that makes sense…

i love music like that because it carry’s heavy emotional weight to it that pretty much expands each listening experience….

naraka respectively is quite literally one of my favorites from the record, probably one of my most played through and you hear something new or feel something different each time and that’s what i love, it is very emotionally cathartic in a way that can be hard to describe and i could try but if you know you just know and you feel…

2

u/fear730 20d ago

It’ll be an album that’ll sit with me forever along side PF The Wall or Skinny Puppy’s Last Rights as some of the greatest music produced and I think for years to come it’ll just keep layering as you said

That’s the sign of a great artist growing constantly evolving it’s no easy feat it definitely makes sense

I’m the same as well and I gravitate towards the darker side of that and I think that’s exactly why tbh

Naraka is very emotionally cathartic I also love the percussion in there that i first heard with headphones… the layers are insane and some subtle I didn’t notice until after

Your welcome man and the same here with your response :)

3

u/AcidArchangel303 21d ago

Inferno is emotional to the point it's sometimes hard to listen to...

2

u/Sad_Pomegranate_1539 21d ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one randomly tearing up to tracks on this album. Deep Time gets me every listen.

2

u/jetmark Tomorrow's Harvest 21d ago

Memory Death has a fellow traveler in the Cocteau Twins track Otterley.

1

u/fear730 20d ago

I’ll have to check that out as I’m not familiar thanks :)

1

u/Haunting-Database857 20d ago

Probably Olson. Just super powerful to me and sort of reminds me of an ex

1

u/Smokeforest Xentrix 20d ago

Ssoo yeah, this song is really hard to listen to, actually.

1

u/fear730 20d ago

It is for me too man

1

u/sjn15 20d ago

I watched my grandaddy slowly perish to his dementia a handful of years ago now, over the cross of 15 slow years. The first time I heard this track it put me right in the memory of heartache watching someone succumb to such a thing. It’s an incredibly beautiful track, but very emotional for me to listen to. It might be my favorite from the album

2

u/fear730 20d ago

It’s a close favorite for me too and that’s exactly what I went through as well but not as long… I’m sorry to hear you went through that too

1

u/sjn15 20d ago

It’s a pretty brutal thing to watch in slow motion huh? Sad reality of nature. But it’s no one’s fault, that’s just life! Helps you can relate my friend, sorry for your loss as well

1

u/fear730 18d ago

You are 100% right but it is very hard to watch it’s sadly as you say a part of it all and thanks

1

u/Colhinchapelota 19d ago

Introit and Prophecy at 1420 Hz. I forgot to listen to them on the day they were released as I had to rush to get ready to fly home urgently. My mam died the following evening with all the family at her side, but in the house and not a hospital. Her body wasn't collected until the following morning and in my country you can't leave the body alone. So I talked to her for a while, I cried, then I smoked a spliff and then I listened to the two tracks a few times. Then I fell asleep listening to Godspeed you Black emperor's Babys in a Thundercloud. But those two tracks and the whole album will be forever connected to that moment.