Sound Cathedral

I confess, I bought this album blindly. Hear about a Tweet has cashed me, the first thing the cover. The picture is a quaint village church, no idea what made that point exactly in me, but something homely it was. Quick googled something (the occupation of British good ol boys Michael has indeed already described in detail), something reingehört and already bought. Although I have some Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Marillion and It Bites plates in the collection, I am not outspoken Prog fan, but what you do not have to be for this excellent record.

Of course, you've heard all the ingredients already 100 times, but the album manages to create a gentle, never boring and highly melodic mood in many places and transport. The songs contain a lot of melodic rock and pop elements (eg. The anthemic choruses in LIGHTHOUSE or FRIDGE FULL OF STARS), yet the songs never seem one-dimensional. Take the example of LIGHTHOUSE, which opens the album. After an atmospheric keyboard intro follows the simple, beautiful melody, before the song then drifts gradually in progressive fields. The middle part is quiet and gives time to breathe before then again in the final section follows a veritable instrumental finale, but never rude, driven by the highly melodic guitars. Often prog act songs artificially gefrickelt in the length, here it is not so. After 12:53 minutes LIGHTHOUSE leaves only a slight sigh, not a note, not a second is too much on the court. In a similar league FRIDGE FULL OF STARS, which is somewhat reminiscent of the Flower Kings plays. But it is also less complex, as TELEPHONE proves. A little acts of song as a distant cousin of Follow You, Follow Me, the song but because of the special bass work a very unique vibe that is more reminiscent of Ambient Pop as a prog rock.

The idyll on the cover might make sense, it is a kind of coming musical homecoming, which offer the older gentlemen here. However, the Church is a little spotty, what is created here apparently without much effort is a true cathedral