Jolly is an alternative prog rock band from the USA, influenced by bands such as Depeche Mode, Radiohead, Meshuggah, Tool and Type O Negative. Thus, you can expect many different musical styles on their first full-length album. The opening track features a Tool-like head-banging riff, some spacy vocals and dreamy parts reminding me of No-Man. Downstream is my favourite song filled with piano, spacy guitar parts, staccato riffs, many soundscapes and a nice guitar solo. Red Sky Locomotive is a very good prog rock song as well, showing the musical characteristics of Riverside. Jolly’s musical mix of alternative and progressive rock really seems to work, but unfortunately, there are some bad tracks on this album as well. Take for instance We Had An Agreement, which is nothing more than a weird and redundant keyboard intermezzo, or the absolute boring Inside The Womb, with only the sound of seagulls and piano. The remainder of the album, however, is real good prog rock. Therefore, I still rate Jolly with three stars. *** Martien Koolen (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
