| 4.0 excellent | Tom Read CONTRIBUTOR | July 11th 20 |
Espers' brand of medieval psychedelic folk is one that's instantly both inviting and hypnotic. Like
walking into a warm tavern in Elder Scrolls after a long day killing dragons, the lush, pastoral
instrumentation embraces you with a drink, a smile and the crackling of a hearty fire. Luckily for the
sake of thematic accuracy there is a strong bardic sense of appropriate repetition, resulting in a
natural ambience effect that renders the record both profoundly interesting in focus and blissful in the
background. Certain elements even veer off more into occultish or pagan territory, with a light Wicker
Man-esque sense of awkward fear and intangible worry. All in all, this is a record that, given proper
willingness to submit to it's charms, pulls you into it's own fantastical world, and at the very lowest
point of attention still results in an invitingly pleasant listen.
83/100
Highlights: Dead Queen, Children of Stone, Moon Occults the Sun
Bump |
| 3.5 great | GarthTaargus | April 1st 10 |
Trance-inducing, thought-inspiring, texturally excellent, dark, psychedelic, imaginative, and occasionally boring. I like it well.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | Iai EMERITUS | February 20th 08 |
Although quite clearly a folk album, the songs Espers write are so ethereal, so distant, that they may as well be a new age group. That in itself is both their biggest flaw and their greatest strength - while it instantly moves them apart from the neo-folk pack, it also means that this really is a difficult album to fully grasp. Nothing here seems solid or real - it's like listening to smoke, as weird a metaphor as that is. So while this is an astonishingly beautiful album at times, it's also a frustrating one. You know those drug trips people have where they keep chasing a bunny and can never catch it? That's what this album is.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | Jips | November 13th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | unkle | November 12th 13 |
| 5.0 classic | sweboy | June 17th 08 |
| 3.5 great | eliene | December 3rd 07 |
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