Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Cover art by William Schaff
Studio album by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Released	12 September 2000
Recorded	February 2000
Studio	Chemical Sound Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genre	Post-rock drone dark ambient
Length	87:21
Label	Kranky
Producer	Daryl Smith
Godspeed You! Black Emperor chronology
Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada (1999) Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000) Yanqui U.X.O. (2002)

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (also known as Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven! and Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven) is a 2000 double album released by the Canadian post-rock group Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Structure and details

The four tracks on Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven are composed of individually named internal movements. The whole album is instrumental, except for sampled voice inserts. The samples on the album are often used to send some satirical or political message. The inner panels of the vinyl edition released by Constellation contain a diagram used to illustrate the relative lengths of movements within the four tracks; each movement is drawn by Efrim Menuck,^[1] as a rectangular block with its length determined by the proportion of the track it comprises. Some of the blocks are shifted slightly upwards to show an increase in intensity. The movement title and the numerical length are denoted either above or below the square. The same diagram is provided as a paper insert in the CD edition from Kranky.

The inside cover drawings were taken from William Schaff's "Notes to a Friend; Silently Listening No. 2", and the cover was a redrawn version of one of the pieces on "Notes to a Friend", by John Arthur Tinholt. The flip side of the vinyl contains various images taken by the band.

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Alternative Press	5/5[4]
The Austin Chronicle	[5]
The Guardian	[6]
NME	9/10[7]
Pitchfork Media	9.0/10[8]
Q	[9]
Select	5/5[10]
Spin	8/10[11]
Uncut	[12]

The album was universally praised upon release, receiving a Metacritic score of 84 based on 13 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim".^[2] Pitchfork Media called it a "massive and achingly beautiful work" calling the first disc " a refinement of the sound that crystallized on the Slow Riot EP" whilst the second disc "flirts with moments of vertiginous shoegazing, looser rock drumming and reckless crescendos of unalloyed noise".^[13] Alternative Press called it "a massive instrumental effort" that "(is) as skilled and musical as it is on-the-fly improvised and messy" (#150, p. 94).The A.V. Club called the album "as beautiful and disarming as its predecessors". Tiny Mix Tapes called the album "alternately hypnotic and captivating, sleepy and startling" comparing its sounds to "a far subtler Pink Floyd".^[14] The Austin Chronicle called it "cinematic" and "breathtaking in its grandiose beauty".^[15]

The album went on to be included in numerous year-end and decade-end music lists. Magnet (1-2/01, p. 45) included it in its "20 Best Albums of 2000" list. NME (12/30/00, p. 78) ranked it number 16 in its "Top 50 Albums of the Year". Sputnikmusic named it the 6th best album of the 2000s.^[16] Pitchfork Media named it the 5th best album of the year.^[17] and the 65th best album of the decade.^[18] They also ranked the first movement of the track 'Storm' at #283 on their list of "Top 500 tracks of the 2000's".^[19] Tiny Mix Tapes ranked it 7th on their "Favorite 100 Albums of 2000-2009" list.^[20] LAS Magazine ranked it the 14th greatest album of the decade.^[21] Gigwise included the album on its list of the 50 best albums of the 2000s.^[22]

Track listing

The album consists of four continuous tracks on the compact disc release split into two CDs. The double LP release has each track pressed onto their own side. Time lengths of individual movements are taken from the official discography.^[23] Times for each movement appear in the album's cover art, but those times are very inaccurate. While the movements of the tracks are listed, the names of the four tracks that make up the album are unlisted on the CD.

Disc one

Disc two

Notes

• "Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt. III" was originally named "3rd Part".
• "She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone in an Empty Field" was originally named "John Hughes", presumably after the film director.
• "Monheim" and "Chart #3" were recorded on 22 November 1998 (but not broadcast until 19 January 1999) for John Peel's radio show before the release of Skinny Fists as the first two movements of a piece called "Hung Over as the Queen in Maida Vale".^[24][25] The closing movement, which has never been officially released, was named "Steve Reich" after the minimalist composer, and is loosely based on his piece Violin Phase.

Personnel

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

• Thierry Amar – bass guitar
• David Bryant – electric guitar
• Bruce Cawdron – drums
• Aidan Girt – drums
• Norsola Johnson – cello
• Efrim Menuck – guitar
• Mauro Pezzente – bass guitar
• Roger Tellier-Craig – guitar
• Sophie Trudeau – violin

Other musicians

• Alfons – horn
• Brian – horn

Production

• John Golden – mastering
• Daryl Smith – production

Charts

References

External links

• Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven at Constellation Records
• Speech transcript of the track "Static" at SongMeanings.net
• Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven at Metacritic.com