The French band Polychrome, unknown to me until now, come with their second album called Someday. The album actually describes the course of a day and has both French and English titled tracks but the lyrics are all in English. The driving forces behind the band are the brothers Simon Senizergues and Maxime Senizergues who play guitar and keyboards respectively and both also take care of part of the vocals. Yet it is certainly a band because Omar Nicho is an extra guitarist, Sergio Santiago plays bass guitar and Loïck Tournois completes the whole on drums. The supplied information is again extremely well taken care of and it shows that both brothers are very skilled and trained musicians. As far as the mentioned influences are concerned, it goes in all directions, from The Beatles to King Crimson and from Pink Floyd to Steve Reich and they also mention jazzy influences. Does this also lead to a mishmash of styles? No not really, in fact, just as clear as the common thread in the lyrics are, so clear is the chosen atmosphere of the music. Of course, the day starts with L'Aurore and that sounds nice and cosmic with floating keys and a plucking guitar that plays a repetitive pattern. The weekdays are spoken as lyrics and eventually that results in the title of the album, Someday. The following I Feel Good is a cheerful song with a slightly jazzy undertone. Still, the polyphonic vocals don't appeal to me and the heavy French accent doesn't really help either. And while I'm complaining, let's immediately include the sound of the solo guitar, the distorted sound is really disturbing and outdated. This song doesn't touch me at all so quickly on to Daydreamer but everything that didn't appeal to me is still present here. There is a fairly clear Steely Dan vibe but unfortunately the quality of this band is not achieved and it even gets a bit cheesy here and there. The Dog And The Frog persist in the chosen style and the old-fashioned sounding guitar solo doesn't make it any better. Actually, it's mainly the short semi-instrumental tracks that appeal to me the most, so Le Crepuscule, or the twilight, is a welcome change. Two longer tracks follow, Give Me Five is almost instrumental and is a mix of electronic and jazzy influences with occasional spoken lyrics. And then it actually happens, in the more than eight minutes long Andy we start with a clear hint of Pink Floyd but soon the vocals come in and they don't appeal to me at all. That is of course a matter of taste, but they do not come across as very stable and chosen vocal lines are unusual to say the least. Still, there are quite a few pieces that I like and when we almost get to the four-minute mark, a nice proggy piece follows with some heavier guitars and some quirky melodies. Remember, however, goes in a completely different direction and here we hear the Beatles influences best but in terms of vocals it continuously rubs along the edge. The day ends with L'Aube and that is a relaxed short song with a pleasant keyboard solo and again those high harmony vocals. For the pure prog lovers there is little to get from Someday and I would especially recommend the album to people who have a weak spot for Steely Dan and related bands. You do have to be able to deal with the somewhat wobbly vocals though. **+ Erik Fraanje (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
