As a big fan of the music of the Polish band Millenium, I was initially a bit surprised by this release. Why? Actually The Lost Melodies is a new album, but at the same time it is not. On the occasion of their twenty fifth anniversary, something had to be released, but apparently there was not enough material for a full-fledged release. Still, I have to give Mr. Ryszard Kramarski credit for choosing a smart solution, namely a kind of composite album with new tracks among which is a real epic, some slimmed-down songs from the last album and some tracks that were released but never ended up on a regular album. The tastemaker of this album is the aforementioned epic that also functions as the title song of the album. This more than fifteen minutes song shows both the current singer, David Lewandowski, and the previous two singers, Lukasz Galievics and Marek Smelkowski and that is a genius find. As with every band that has been around for so long, choices have been made in the past that have left pieces of music behind, so-called lost melodies. How smart to make this a kind of tribute to your own oeuvre. I would buy the album for this track alone because they are not only lost melodies but also beautiful melodies. You can hear that the band has always had strong vocalists regardless of the phase of existence. Lewandowski is asserting himself more and more and is proving to be a perfect successor to, in particular, Lukasz Gall. Of course, the super melodic solos of guitarist Piotr Plonka are not missing and in the last part we hear that Kramarski gets everything out of his keys. On the latest album Hope Dies Last (2024, see review) we were already introduced to flutist/saxophonist Łukasz Płatek and he (unfortunately) also lets his saxophone join in every now and then and that's not my thing. Still, it remains a very beautiful song. Past The Veil Of Clouds also contains everything that makes this band so good with Lewandowski at its best, dreamy keys with Platek on flute, much better, and a mighty solo by Plonka, indeed, another one. The tempo remains relatively low, but here too the melody is so good that the seven minutes are over before you know it. We already know the song Something Ends, Something Begins from the compilation album that marked the transition from Gall to Lewandowski and thus contains some vocals by Kramarski but heavily distorted. So it's actually almost an instrumental and then you guessed it, Plonka shines again. His feel for timing and melody is really outstanding. After this it all gets a bit different, we first get the more traditional ballad Save Me, beautiful but not of the level of the first three tracks. And the next three tracks are shortened versions of tracks that were on the latest album Hope Dies Last plus a reworking of the song Light Your Cigar with a lot of use of the vocoder again. Those remain strong songs but I think the more extensive originals are much better. To me, this feels a bit like additional material. River Of Love is a short love song, from the 2020 album Rarities (see review), of which I would not have minded if they had left it out, but closing track That Was 30 Years Ago is another nice track that is of course full of nostalgic feelings and is a nice closer with a distinct Pink Floyd feel due to the guitar parts. As already stated, it is a bit of a mixed bag but just the first three songs in a row are so indicative of the quality of these Poles that I finally fully support the purchase of this CD and can wholeheartedly recommend everyone who already knows and appreciates the music of Millenium to purchase this album. For those who don't know Millenium yet, I would recommend another album from their extensive oeuvre such as The Web (2019, see review) or Tales Of Imaginary Movies (2022, see review). Plenty of choice. Together with the well-chosen cover, The Lost Melodies forms a work of art that deserves a pretty high rating. ****- Erik Fraanje (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
