After seven long years, Colin Stetson’s 2017 release, “All This I Do For Glory,” finally has its long-awaited sequel. As such, “The love it took to leave you” is the newest addition to his overarching epic narrative that spans his solo work. Not only does it prove to be quite possibly one of his best works yet, but it also offers a ton of fanservice to long-time listeners without alienating any newcomers.
Stetson is firing on all cylinders with this new release, flaunting compositions that range from beautiful to tense to borderline terrifying. It begins with the title track, a song that was previewed back in 2020 in Adult Swim’s online festival. Though one of the more repetitive tracks, it creates such a stunning atmosphere that its repetition can be forgone with ease. Immediately following is “The Six,” which is by far one of Stetson’s most intense compositions yet, almost sounding like a death metal song translated to bass saxophone.
Also featured on this album is Stetson’s longest single-take song yet, “Strike your forge and grin,” which comes in at an entire 21 minutes and 52 seconds of nonstop droning saxophone playing building into an intense, percussion-heavy soundscape, a physical and sonic feat few could ever dream to accomplish. The album also features quite a few callbacks to Stetson’s previous works, with some song titles or melodies referencing back to songs from his New History Warfare trilogy, further adding to the fanfare contained within this work.
“The love it took to leave you” is easily one of Stetson’s best works and will be looked upon in the future as a shining example of what over 30 years of commitment to an artform can achieve.
9/10