Songs I Like

everywhere at the end of time.

Everywhere at the End of Time. A 6 album project by The Caretaker, the alias of Leyland Kirby depicting the stages of Alzheimer's/Dementia through deteriorating samples of ballroom music, eventually leading into static and white noise, discovered while scrolling through the YouTube recommended page on an average Tuesday night. Seems pretty simple, right? Perhaps even seems like a waste of time, when you could just research on the disease yourself, or just keep away from the disturbing subject altogether and carry on with your life, consuming the content that helps you wind down on your Tuesday night.

Everywhere is anything but those things. When you press play and hear It's Just a Burning Memory, you may find yourself thinking a number of things: "Well, this is hot shit. I'm not listening to 6 and a half hours of oldie music." "Holy shit, this is actually a vibe. I could do my homework to this." "This is kinda disturbing, something feels off." For me, it was a combination of these opinions. I actually kind of like music like that, but I didn't know if I could stick almost 6 and a half hours of any one thing and something scared me from the get go about this music in particular. 

Some background to this work and the artist. The Caretaker was an alias of Leyland Kirby, who through this alias, made music similar to EATEOT for 20 years. His decision to use ballroom music to make the message he was going for with a certain album was inspired by the ballroom scene in The Shining. In 2016, Kirby announced that he was to kill off The Caretaker by diagnosing him with Dementia, and that his disease and eventual death would be portrayed through Everywhere at the End of Time. Stage 1 was released in 2016, Stages 2 and 3 in 2017, Stages 4 and 5 in 2018 and finally Stage 6 in 2019. When all 6 stages were released, Kirby uploaded all the albums into a 6 and a half hour long video onto his YouTube channel, with descriptions of each stage in the video description. It's available for purchase in CD and vinyl formats on the website Boomkat, though the physical releases don't have the descriptions that are seen online.

This project remained relatively unknown outside of Kirby's small fanbase until the internet discovered it in 2020, and gained some fame on TikTok, where people were challenged to listen to the whole video. Because of this, there was also false information spread, including the wild claim that it would give the perfectly healthy 16 year old boy listening to the album on his Macbook Pro while playing Minecraft dementia. My thoughts on this is that it's made to emulate dementia, but it obviously won't make you get it. The music deteriorates and gets more confusing until eventual nothingness, like memories and sense of self in a dementia patient. But to the listener, the most that will happen is perhaps some feelings of anxiety, and most definitely, sympathy towards the people suffering with this.

With that being said, I must give a trigger/content warning to those who want to go into this. This is not a pleasant listen at all, and it will make you feel disturbed and that feeling may linger on you for days. It may cause you anxiety or distress, and the ending will certainly make you emotional to the point of tears. It's not a record that's suitable for easy listening or to wind down in the evening. Please take care of yourself and pause the music if you need to. It's best listened to all at once, so if you do decide to do this, I suggest occupying yourself with something like a video game or a book or drawing or, as I'm doing, writing, or even at work if you can. Listen with headphones to get the full experience and have a drink of water nearby. Have someone with you if you think it will distress you too much. Just do whatever you need to take care of yourself while listening to this album. It's linked above if you'd like to listen to it, but please take care of yourself first. The review will contain links to notable songs that I mention, but please only listen to them if you think you can handle them based on what I say about them.