Prehistoric Animals' album The Magical Mystery Machine (chapter 1) (see review) was one of the best albums of 2020, so I was really looking forward to listening to and reviewing this new album by these Swedish rockers. PHA's fourth album is called Finding Love In Strangest Places and the first thing I noticed is that this one is their shortest album so far. The music presented here is again a blend of atmospheric prog rock, alternative rock and sometimes even pop rock and highly recommended for fans of bands like Anathema, Porcupine Tree, or Circus Maximus. The album opens with the lengthy song The City Of My Dreams, being an excellent, almost flawless track, highlighting excellent melodies, riffing and overall, the song is really intense and dynamic. However, follow up A Bad Day For The Neon God is actually not a real song, but just as Strange Places and Come Home short interludes that to me really do not make too much sense and/or impression. Living In A World Of Bliss is almost a pop rock track and to me this one is at least two minutes too long, hence therefore rather tiresome indeed. The most proggy track on this album is called The Secret Society Of Goodness, featuring lots of musical twists and turns and displaying PHA musical abilities to the full. Finding Love In Strangest Places is certainly not a breakthrough album for PHA as it is only a reaffirmation of the wonderful music that this band composes, produces and plays; a sound that is heavy, featuring lots of down-tuned riffs and hooks, digital keys and hard pumping bass lines, but overall for me this new PHA album is a slight disappointment as the musical level cannot top, or even match the musical level of their debut album or The Magical Mystery Machine. ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
