Circuline is an American crossover prog rock band, formed ten years ago and I have never heard any of their music before. C.O.R.E., which stands for Circuline Original Reimagined Evolving is their third studio album and the music for this album was composed and recorded between 2018 and 2023. After the first spin of C.O.R.E. I was not really enthusiastic about this album, however the album seemed to be a grower as with every new spin I liked some of the songs better and better. The song I liked from the start and for me the standout track of this album is called All. This track is really an example of how good this band musically actually is. All, has it all indeed, beautiful keyboards by Andrew Colyer, excellent soaring guitar playing by Dave Bainbridge and beautiful emotional vocals by Colyer and Natalie Brown. Actually, this great track reminded me of other prime time prog rock bands like Yes, The Flower Kings and even Spock's Beard; definitely the best song on the album, at least for yours truly.... The opening track Tempus Horribilis is not a track that you might really enjoy hearing it for the first time as the spoken words and the other "weird" vocal effects might be rather "off-putting, so not a really good start for an album... Follow up Third Rail, the shortest song of the album, is again a get used to song as it has obvious trademarks of the music of Renaissance and that is, sad but true, not really my cup of tea, as it sounds like a strange pot-pourri of prog rock. Temporal Thing opens with an acoustic guitar introduction - hello Steve Howe - and some dreamy piano playing, but for me the song does not come to life in the following minutes, while Blindside is the real ballad of this album and this one features a beautiful melodic guitar solo almost at the end of this rather mediocre song. C.O.R.E. ends with the longest track of the album called Transmission Error, which peaks at nine minutes twenty-two; a mid-tempo track that showcases the musical level of Circuline, featuring sometimes very complex guitar work and even jazzy tempos; so a true progressive rock piece indeed, which is a great end to this rather "mixed" album, as C.O.R.E is a somewhat tricky album to really appreciate and there are actually no memorable songs - maybe All - on this album that you will listen to again and again. But give it some time and maybe and hopefully you will appreciate Circuline's new album for what it is worth as C.O.R.E truly requires some patience... Play it LOUD on your headphones for the best effect. ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
