We are again treated to a new album by British band Mostly Autumn entitled Seawater. From the very beginning I have owned several albums by this special band, but I must also honestly confess that I don't think all albums are equally good and I would like to explain that because that is the basis for this review. The band around Brian Josh has always chosen to alternate longer proggie tracks with shorter ones that are sometimes quite different in style. There always has been the interaction between Josh's vocals and an always good female vocalist. Lately that is his partner Olivia Sparnenn. Josh's omnipresent guitar solos have always been an important part of the music, as well as Iain Jennings' keyboard work for that matter, and his distinctive style often comes very close to David Gilmour and that's certainly not a bad thing. There always is a kind of folk sauce poured over the music and on this album the often requested Troy Donockley is present and with his input on Uilliann pipes that atmosphere is also present now. The lyrics are often very personal and about Josh's love of nature, but also just as easily about human emotions and precious memories. With Seawater we can also add a bit of climate activism to that and if we see the cover before us, it is not that difficult to make the connection. Well, all the above also applies to Seawater and in that sense it is very consistent what this band serves us. That brings us to the question, how well has all of the above been executed this time or is there perhaps something of a surprise hidden? With almost eighty minutes it has become a very long album so it demands a lot from the listener. Olivia is a very fine singer to listen to and the harmony vocals with Josh are again of a very high level so vocally nothing to complain about. Still, something is gnawing, but what? It's hard to put a finger on that because there are beautiful melodies on Seawater and as a guitar minded listener you can lick your fingers at the many wailing and whining solos. Opener Let's Take A Walk is not very surprising and follows a very recognizable pattern. The beautiful If Only For A Day, sung by Sparnenn, is a power ballad that is really dripping with bombast. We often hear that exuberance and the intensity with which the music is played is sometimes overwhelming. A song like My Home is typical of the somewhat folky slant that we hear more often but can't really interest me. The band has found a stable line-up and all musicians are just very good, from rhythm section, with drummer Henry Rogers and bassist Andy Smith, to flutist and background singer Angela Gordon who has been with Mostly Autumn for a long time. A track that we should definitely highlight is the title track because with almost twenty minutes it is a real epic and takes up a quarter of the album. How well they do that, really everything passes by and actually this song is a kind of summary of the entire album. We all remember how we had to summarize a long text at school and keep the essence of that text alive. So that's exactly what this track does, this is Mostly Autumn all over. Whether we get to hear storms, airy breezes or swirling masses of water, you can imagine it all and it's just very well done. Knowing all of their albums I would say that Seawater is certainly one of their better ones. But what about that gnawing feeling, have you figured that out yet? I think it all repeats itself a bit too often for me and the album would have been long enough with fifty to sixty minutes and therefore even stronger. In the advertising world, repetition is the magic word, but does that also apply to music? Still, Mostly Autumn has made another great album with Seawater that is a must for existing fans but offers nothing new for those who are not. Consistent quality, that's for sure. ***+ Erik Fraanje (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
