MOSTLY AUTUMN: Seawater (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

It's been three ½ years since the release of Mostly Autumn's last album, the magnificent 'Graveyard Star', a rather long time when you consider the discography of the now well-established band stabilized around the Bryan/Olivia Josh couple, more particularly since the 2014 album 'Dressed in Voices'.

This decade has seen the band gradually abandon its Celtic trappings, and this new production reduces them to a bare minimum, with Troy Donockley only stepping in to put his stamp on the single 'Why Do Remember All the Rain', a track that is, incidentally, superbly formatted as an unstoppable progressive pop song. Prior to this, the opening of “Seawater” sees Bryan Josh kick things off with saturated guitar riffs, before his gravelly voice gradually becomes softer, setting up Mostly Autumn's instantly recognizable sound, with vintage keyboards by Iain Jennings in the lead, before the guitarist's fingers gradually warm up to offer a first solo at the end of “Let's Take a Walk”.

The rest of the album evolves in now-familiar waters, showcasing Olivia Josh/Sparnenn's ever-sublime vocals over melodies to die for and choruses that send shivers down your spine, all sprinkled with a variety of guitar solos to brighten up tracks whose orchestrations are once again of the highest quality, the shadow work of the rhythm section and background musicians Angela Gordon and Chris Johnson being anything but anecdotal.

The album's overall theme is once again - if not sombre, particularly in the face of questions about climate change (especially on 'Seawater') - at the very least melancholy. And it is this melancholy that presides over Bryan Josh's new tribute to his father, who died too soon. Twenty-five years after the sublime 'Heroes Never Dies', the band is back with 'When We Ran', a new nugget dedicated to this father figure that will touch every listener.

Positioned at the end of the album, the epic 'Seawater' delivers a further 19 minutes of aural bliss. After a very calm opening, lulled by the flow of soothing waves in piano/female voice mode, a first mid-tempo section offers a first luminous instrumental space, before the alert gradually approaches, installing in the second part of the track an emotionally charged atmosphere of urgency, led by a rhythm section full of precision. The symphonic finale unfurls a majesty commensurate with the urgency and scale of the phenomenon, before a somewhat abrupt end on a few piano notes. Great art once again.

Some will criticize Mostly Autumn for using the same recipes album after album. Admittedly, fans of the band will once again find themselves on familiar, well-trodden ground. But the food is so tasty that it would be incongruous to criticize every single ingredient. “Seawater” is a new gem to be added to the necklace of precious stones of a band that has everything it takes to ignite the crowds.

PS: as usual, Mostly Autumn is offering a limited version of the album, with a second CD featuring eight additional tracks in mostly shorter formats, with only 'Yeppee A.I.' exceeding five minutes, and in sometimes more “adventurous” styles. Far from being anecdotal, these additional compositions are the perfect complement to the basic offering, proposing more varied but equally interesting subjects. A must-have for any self-respecting enthusiast. - Official website

MOSTLY AUTUMN

SEAWATER

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE ROCK