I was so happy when I heard that these guys were returning. I am not a longtime fan but I have listened to many of their past albums before putting this one on (mainly Geogaddi). If you have heard BoC before than you should know the sound that they usually put out is best described as nostalgic. All of their records to me sort of fit in this sound (almost like they were continually playing with the same concept since their “blueprint” album Music Has the Right to Children). Tomorrow’s Harvest to me is Boards Of Canada’s first album to completely break away from that sort of fuzzy nostalgic sound. The concept they chose was one that would destroy many childhoods, the apocalypse. Tomorrow’s Harvest is meant to show the end of everything, the obliteration of happy memories or the prevention of them entirely.

From the first track onwards I kept my mind open and allowed it to follow the music. This is really the best way to enjoy Boards Of Canada since their music is extremely visionary and relies on this heavily. If you aren’t much into picturing things when you listen to music then you might have trouble enjoying this. Gemini, opens up with what sounds like an intro to a feature film. I picture a family gathering around the television to spend time together. As the synths grow and become more unsettling I picture their show being interrupted by a warning. The youngest child then goes to the window to see what is going on. What he sees is the beginning of the apocalypse that Boc will continue to depict.

As the album progresses so does whatever storyline you have in your head. It’s this emersion that really shocks me about Boards Of Canada and just how easily lost you can become in their music. My favorite song on the album, Jacquard Causeway, is where you can see this emersion shine brightest. It has a sort of feel that their past records have but it still fits the apocalyptic theme so well. I highly suggest listening to songs out of context though because I think that this album can be enjoyed more if experienced as a whole. The single that they chose, Reach For the Dead, is really the only song that works well just by itself mainly because it represents the album as a whole, remembering the dead instead of your childhood (well Palace Posy kinda work well without the others as well). I guess thats the best way to explain it, instead of your childhood Boards Of Canada are more fixated on death this time around.

There were a couple weak spots on this album… but I’m gonna skip over that since I feel that these weaker tracks only really feel weak when taken out of the context of the album. I mean if all of the songs sounded like Jacquard Causeway or Reach for The Dead then I would probably get very bored very quickly.