Mark McGuire has already accumulated enough work to span a career, and he’s only 28 years old. The Cleveland-born guitarist joined electronic band Emeralds at 18. While mixing and touring with members John Elliott and Steve Hauschildt, McGuire was working on his own music. His first solo album, “Living With Yourself,” was released in 2010. A second, titled “Get Lost,” was released in 2011.
“A lot of my music comes from everyday life combined with psychedelic and supernatural energy, which is how my world feels,” said McGuire in a 2011 interview with The Quietus.
McGuire’s world has only expanded. He left Emeralds in 2013 and a year later released his third solo album through Dead Oceans entitled “Along the Way.”
In a recent interview with Thump, McGuire admitted that the album was a large experiment: “That was the first time I was using other instruments besides the guitar, trying to compose a record and a piece of music in a way I haven’t done before.”
Written like a soundtrack, “Along the Way” accompanied a story about “the birth of the individual into the world, growing around another human being and getting to know the world around them — the constant re-evaluation of principles and your own actions.”
McGuire’s fourth solo album, released Friday, is in many ways a sequel to Along the Way. He has written and recorded all of the sounds on the album, entitled “Beyond Belief,” over the course of two years.
The result is nine eerie and psychedelic tracks.
“This one is more of an overarching story loosely flowing through each song,” McGuire said in the Thump interview, “and I’m really excited that it came together along with the music because I wanted the music to reflect many different aspects of experience.”
It’s a chronological work of art. Each track tells a piece of the narrative, spanning a timeline of consciousness that McGuire sees.
The album begins with “The Naacals,” an almost six-minute mishmash of piano, guitar and electronic layers that sound like a background track. Relaxing to listen to, it’s one of the tamer tracks, jazzy and light.
“The Past Presents the Future” is 15 minutes of something similar. Edging toward what McGuire would call psychedelic, the fade in and out of alien-like sounds combined with the steady piano beat is nothing short of trippy.
Track three, “Sons of the Serpent,” is different. McGuire blends heavy static guitar with a clear, crisp electric line and then adds his voice. The lyrics are almost impossible to understand, though that might be the intention. They blend with warm guitar lines, neither aggressive nor absent. It’s like a rock song from outer space.
This contrasts heavily with the frightening introduction to the next track, “Earth: 2015.” Slamming doors, sirens and gunshot-like pulses make it seem like an action movie. This track is harder to listen to, with too many strict beats and metallic sounds. By the end of the almost 11-minute song, the aggressive beats let up and the keyboard becomes the loudest part along with some lighter guitar hooks.
“The Undying Stars” and “Lock In Our Sky Language (For Cyan),” tracks five and six, are distinctively more outer space. “The Undying Stars” is dominated by guitar, while “Lock in Our Sky Language (For Cyan)” involves xylophone and radio-sounding vocals. The constant beat is reminiscent of a clock, ticking slowly through space and time.
The last three tracks feature McGuire’s vocals. “Beyond” consists of warm loops layered over McGuire’s soothing tone, though it’s again impossible to make out.
“True Love (Song for Rachel)” is the most intimate song on the record. It begins with acoustic guitar, and slowly brings in light electronic lines along with soft vocals. As the song progresses, so does the intensity of feeling, almost as if McGuire is moving from whispers to shouts of affection and passion.
The final track is titled “Belief.” At just over 12 minutes long, this track begins with a strange combination of the sounds of life such as muffled talking, whimpering and children’s voices over gentle piano and strings. The second half is rockier, featuring a distinct guitar line.
Not everyone might appreciate McGuire’s music, but anyone and everyone should be able to appreciate the skill with which he creates. The masterful manipulation of technology and musicianship is to be admired and kept in mind. McGuire is not going away, and that’s a good thing.
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