The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi is the second studio album by Boston experimental rock band The Receiving End of Sirens

The Receiving End of Sirens

The Receiving End of Sirens is a rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2003.-Overview:The band played on the 2005 Warped Tour and has toured with such acts as Gatsbys American Dream, A Wilhelm Scream, 30 Seconds to Mars, Funeral for a Friend, Saves the Day, Senses Fail, Thrice, and New...

. It is the band's first album with guitarist/keyboardist Brian Southall

Brian Southall

Brian Michael Southall is an American guitarist, drummer, keyboardist, vocalist, producer, and band manager. He is known for playing in bands fordirelifesake, Boys Night Out, and The Receiving End of Sirens. He is currently the guitarist and keyboard player of post-hardcore supergroup Isles &...

 who joined the band after the departure of guitarist/vocalist Casey Crescenzo

Casey Crescenzo

Casey Crescenzo is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, most notably for the bands The Dear Hunter and The Receiving End of Sirens...

. This album was produced by Matt Squire

Matt Squire

Matt Squire is an American multi-platinum music producer and writer. He has produced, engineered, or written tracks for One Direction, 3OH!3, Good Charlotte, New Boyz, Selena Gomez, David Archuleta, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, The Used, All Time Low, Panic! at the Disco, Boys Like Girls, The Cab,...

 (Panic! at the Disco

Panic! at the Disco

Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...

, Boys Like Girls

Boys Like Girls

Boys Like Girls is an American rock band from Massachusetts. Formed in 2005, the group gained mainstream recognition when it released its self-titled debut album. Boys Like Girls was the co-headliner with Good Charlotte for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour 2008 that toured across the United...

, Hit The Lights). Writing for the album occurred from October 2006 to January 2007. As of August 2, 2007 the retail version of the album was posted for streaming on the band's Myspace page. The album peaked at #130 on the Billboard 200, #3 on Top Heatseekers, and #15 on Top Independent Albums.

Track listing

All music by The Receiving End of Sirens. All lyrics by Brendan Brown.

1. "Swallow People Whole" - 5:44
2. "Oubliette (Disappear)" - 4:14
3. "The Crop and the Pest" - 4:49
4. "The Salesman, The Husband, The Lover" - 6:57
5. "Smoke and Mirrors" - 4:13
6. "A Realization Of The Ear" - 4:37
7. "Saturnus" [previously "Hemi"] - 3:48
8. "Wanderers" - 5:05
9. "Stay Small" - 3:35
10. "Music Of The Spheres" - 2:17
11. "The Heir Of Empty Breath" - 7:44
12. "Pale Blue Dot" - 7:22

iTunes Exclusive Tracks

• "Weight/Wait" - 6:23
• "The Salesman, The Husband, The Lover" (acoustic) - 6:11

Album Background & Inspiration

From the album press release via Absolutepunk.net

AbsolutePunk.net

AbsolutePunk is a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate . The website mainly focuses on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it has been known to feature artists who have eventually achieved crossover success, including Fall...

:

"The title, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi was taken from a book written by a late 16th century astronomical theorist by the name of Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican...

 [Harmonices Mundi] and the publication just fascinated the band. Kepler’s theory suggested that each of the 9 planets in our solar system produced tones as they orbited the sun. Throughout the orbit, Venus

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

 would stay a consistent note that was considered the 6th in relation to the rest of the planets. As Earth would shift its tonality, it would create the effect of the notes moving from the major 6th to the minor 6th and back and forth. This is where the “Mi Fa Mi” comes into action, symbolizing the corresponding syllables when singing a scale in relation to the notes of the earth {Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do}. Kepler further concurred that the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 “singing” Mi Fa Mi could truly stand for Misery, Famine, Misery and ultimately, that is the song the Earth and Venus continued to sing. Misery

Misery

Misery is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1988, and was later made into a Hollywood film and an off-Broadway play of the same name.-Plot summary:...

, referring to an empty place and Famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

, referring to the appetite or thirst for things."

Behind the Record

Through the band's album website, in a section called "Behind The Record," TREOS discussed a different song from their new record each day, leading up to the release on August 7 - occurring in the same order as the track listing. Each band member put together their personal account of writing and recording each song, which helped fans gain insight into lyrical, song, and conceptual meanings. Along with the entries about each song, 30 second clips of the day's song were uploaded so that fans could listen as they read.

Personnel

• Alex Bars - guitars, vocals, programming
• Andrew Cook - drums, percussion, programming, glockenspiel
• Brendan Brown - bass guitar, vocals, programming, keys, glockenspiel
• Brian Southall
  Brian Southall
  Brian Michael Southall is an American guitarist, drummer, keyboardist, vocalist, producer, and band manager. He is known for playing in bands fordirelifesake, Boys Night Out, and The Receiving End of Sirens. He is currently the guitarist and keyboard player of post-hardcore supergroup Isles &...
  
   - guitars, programming, keys, glockenspiel
• Nate Patterson - guitars, keys, glockenspiel
• Matt Squire
  Matt Squire
  Matt Squire is an American multi-platinum music producer and writer. He has produced, engineered, or written tracks for One Direction, 3OH!3, Good Charlotte, New Boyz, Selena Gomez, David Archuleta, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, The Used, All Time Low, Panic! at the Disco, Boys Like Girls, The Cab,...
  
  - production, engineering, mixing, additional programming
• Heather Stebbins & Jessica Clough - strings
• Brad Filip - album art and websites (Official Site)

Critical reception

The critical response to The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi was extremely favorable. Allmusic gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5 and praises them stating that "Not many bands could conceive of building an album around the twin poles of family breakdown and astronomer Johannes Kepler's tonal theory of the planets".
However AbsolutePunk's Steve Henderson describes that the individual songs lack a "standalone punch" but "within the context of the album and its corresponding story, it all sort of clicks".

External links

• Official album site updates from the studio, videos, notes, etc
• Official band site