Rudyard Kipling’s classic poem If receives an intense, long-awaited score in the new album from Ranges. Perhaps best known for the opening and closing lines, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs … you’ll be a Man, my son!”, the poem has inspired generations of readers. Recent historical evaluations have been hard on Kipling, fair or unfair, but do not diminish the power of the words, the only caveat being that “If” is not just for men. The solid advice, and empathy for the struggle, continues to resonate today.
The album begins with the title track and poem, Kipling’s words intoned over a post-rock backdrop. This three-minute piece sets the pace for the album, steadily accumulating in strength and impact. At first, there is only guitar and piano; a single drum beat arrives, then another. The listener is drawn into the words, the poem accumulating its own momentum. As the last line is spoken, a rising chord explodes into the subsequent piece: the album’s most thrilling moment. From this point on, the listener is sold. Not only does the music embody the the emotions of the poem – ambient passages for reflection, crescendos for realization – but one begins to internalize the lessons therein. Kipling was an adventurer, and this is music for adventure. The massive, uncompromising chords of the third minute are as exciting as anything in The Jungle Book.
Things settle down a bit after this, but not by much; as much as one may recall of Kipling’s life, this music is more about the poem. The lines make incredible post-rock titles, such as “You Can Bear to Hear the Truth You’ve Spoken Twisted by Knaves to Make a Trap for Fools.” Honoring the poem, the music is an exercise in restraint; the point is not to lose one’s cool. Instead, the piece exudes a slow, steady confidence, the quiet ending indicating both external and internal victory. The same holds true of the piano that ends the subsequent pieces, symbolizing self-control.
Ranges makes a wise choice by closing the set with “Yours Is the Earth and Everything That’s In It.” This draws the attention away from the gender reveal of the poem’s closing line, offering a more universal endowment. If, writes Kipling, if you can do all these things, then Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, a massive blessing that justifies the preceding effort. These words reference Psalm 89, and while Kipling was not a Christian, he was fascinated by Christianity. Interpreters suggest that the line is less about receiving than about responsibility; the person who is able to accomplish all of the poem’s tasks is a valuable moral exemplar.
The final track exudes confidence, stepping forth into the world with a knowledge of one’s self in relation to others. The music demonstrates how far Ranges has come as a band, completing the arc begun by the title track while serving as a moral balance to last year’s incredible Sin. Post-rock is particularly suited to score the battle between good and evil, and Ranges has taken this challenge as its clarion call. (Richard Allen)
