Here are a few examples: ‘Cycle Frenzy’ brings to mind Vampire Weekend, ‘House Torn Down’ the Dirty Projectors, and ‘Stimulation’ is like an amalgamation of the two. ‘Caricature’ channels the cheesy rock of Queen to become something akin to Fang Island with the speed turned down, while ‘Procreator’ has the smallest hint of Father John Misty’s style of first-person narration. ‘Common Sense Revolution’ takes a jazzy approach, preaching the importance of common sense amongst the pretentious and self-righteous members of the intelligentsia, sauntering toward the final refrain:

“Teachers need more common sense,
doctors need more common sense,
lawyers need more common sense,
authors (?) need more common sense,
physicists need more common sense,
biologists need more common sense,
sociologists need more common sense,
climatologists need more common sense”

This, in essence, captures the message of the whole album. Estan are raging against the pompous nature of professionals and academics, the title highlighting just how ridiculous we are to think we can assign logic to a universe of chaos far too big for our tiny heads. But rather than taking the nihilist approach and essentially giving up, Beedell celebrates this fact, taking great joy in the unpredictable, irrational and thoroughly interesting accumulation of phenomena that is a humankind. So rather than spending time sorting things into clearly-designated boxes (and sorting the boxes into bigger boxes, etc.), why not strap in and open your eyes to the magical and unknowable world around you?

You can buy The Vanity of Reason now via the Estan Bandcamp page, and it is out on vinyl via Famous Last Records.

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