Arm's Length

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There’s a song on “There’s A Whole World Out There”, the second album by Canadian four-piece Arm’s Length, called “Palinopsia”. Derived from the Greek for “again” (palin) and “seeing” (opsia), it’s a visual phenomenon marked by the persistent image of something that’s no longer actually there. Singer and lyricist Allen Steinberg wrote the song wrote about “pure devotion or love towards someone that may no longer be a part of your life”, but it also applies to the record as a whole. Because throughout this album’s 12 songs, Steinberg wrestles a with the part of life that’s been and gone. Yet there’s a noticeable difference between the person who wrote this record compared to the one who wrote Arm’s Length’s 2022 debut, Never Before Seen, Never Again Found. “This record speaks more to my life at the moment than the past,” he explains, “even though there’s still a good amount of past on it. But it’s how I’m dealing with it now, as opposed to being enveloped in it—there’s more a sense of being on the other side of it, of seeing it with hindsight. The tone has shifted a little. I’m probably just a bit more mature, as my frontal lobe is developing as we speak.”

Produced by Anton DeLost—who worked with the band on Never Before Seen, Never Again Found and 2021’s EP, Everything Nice—There’s A Whole World Out There does indeed expand Arm’s Length’s horizons in accordance with Steinberg’s developing frontal lobe, presenting him as more self-reflective contemplative than he was before.

He wrote the parts for all the instruments, as well as the vast majority of the lyrics, alone in his room, and then brought those initial sketches, recorded as voice memos, to drummer Jeff Whyte, who added percussion to Steinberg’s song skeletons. While the majority of the creative process was in Steinberg’s hands, it was only when these songs were recorded as a full band with Jeremy Whyte, who played bass on the record, and Ben Greenblatt that their full potential was realized. The result is that the feelings driving these songs burst and bloom with full force, building on the incredible foundations set by the band’s previous recorded output.

Indeed, Arm’s Length pull no punches here. From the moment “The World” starts proceedings, There’s A Whole World Out There unfolds with the dual torment and exhilaration of what it means to be alive—but with the knowledge and understanding that everything is also always lost. “Fatal Flaw” doubles down on the wistful longing that drives this record while also addressing what it means to be an artist who uses pain to create art, while the moving “Genetic Lottery” is a self-aware dig at that nostalgia that Steinberg has felt since he was young. Elsewhere, “The Wound” and “You Ominously End” see the singer counteract his confessionals with some deliciously black humor. Though most of the album is designed to be played loud, there are also moments of delicate, tender nuance. Both offer a window into the resilience that got Steinberg through those trying few years, allowing him to now look back on them, if not with a smile, then at least with a palpable sense of relief.

“It’s all about having some hindsight,” he says, “and being able to look back on the traumas that I talked about on the last record and which were present in my own life. They’re still ever present on this album, but there’s a different mood and a shift in how I’m talking about the trauma. It’s accepting the damage is done, and then moving on.