Review Summary: And beyond!
When I landed in Tokyo in 2009, my life, as I knew it, was basically shattered. I had come through a ten-year relationship that ended up like the battle of Waterloo, my economy was sunk next to the corpse of Di Caprio still stuck under the iron of the Titanic, rotting at the bottom of the ocean, and I had no friends or family to rely on in that new, very foreign land. It took a year of working and saving, eating loads of cup noodle and practically becoming an alcoholic, but eventually I dug my own hole (24 square meters, approximately) and before I knew I had started finding joy again, new friends, and even love (which eventually became marriage, a kid and the key to my demise, but that’s a story for another review).
What I wanted to say is that, the soundtrack of that first year of blooming again after the withering was
Amor Vincit Omnia, Pure Reason Revolution's second and still, their most eclectic album. I had just discovered them through one of those listening stands in Shibuya's now long-gone HMV record stores and I quickly became fascinated by their brand of alternative rock infused with electronic elements. But what really made me go crazy about them was that signature sound in their vocal harmonies, something that it’s the only constant that has remained untouched throughout their catalogue. Sadly, after a follow up in the shape of
Hammer and Anvil in 2010 and while the band seemed to be doing pretty ok, they suddenly decided to call it quits and practically disappeared for the entirety of the 10s. Alper went on to form her own project, Tiny Giant, and became a session touring musician for Charli XCX. Courtney, on the other hand, moved to Berlin and eventually formed a duo called Bullet Height towards the end of the decade. Their drummer, Paul Glover eventually drummed for Alper’s project and to be fair, I have no idea what happened with guitar maestro Jamie Wilcox.
Me? I veered towards creating my own music too, to the point that I lost myself in my own anus so deep that I almost completely lost interest in listening to any other band for a period that would last almost six years after that. Never, not even in my wildest dreams, I would have expected Pure Reason Revolution coming back in 2020 after years of praying to the forbidden gods and sacrificing almost all my stock of broken drumsticks to the fire. Let alone that they would do it with an album like
Eupnea trumpeting their glorious return. With slightly less surprise but still with considerable awe and admiration for their craft, soon after
Eupnea was released, I already knew that Jon Courtney had been working on a follow-up.
It seems that, due to the fickle nature of the writing process, which started in April of 2020 and saw intense periods of inspiration being counter-reflected with dry seasons when Jon preferred to shift his focus to the potatoes growing in his garden, PRR's new album has taken almost 18 months to be complete. Since
Eupnea couldn't be toured due to the pandemic splashing wave after wave against everyone's plans, and since the band had the possibility of working remotely, the album cycle was much shorter than usual which eventually allowed for
Above Cirrus to be conceived almost at the same speed King Gizzard churns out records. Almost.
The dream team from
Eupnea is all here, so it's safe to say that if you enjoyed their 2020 comeback, this one will be a sure shot. Chloe Alper made some space in her busy schedule as a member of britpop legends James to record her vocals, while session drummer and producer Geoff Dugmore sat once again behind the drum kit and made Jon's programmed drums sound like Thor was hammering two Mjolnirs on the drumskins. In addition, former member Greg Jong, who had worked already in
Eupnea on a lesser degree, takes a heavier role here as a co-songwriter with Jon Courtney, as well as performing as a third vocalist and guitar player on tour. The result is an album that sounds pretty much like
Eupnea, but where the heavy parts are heavier, and the electronic parts are, well... more... electronic.
In all my years of listening to PRR I could never pinpoint exactly which are their influences, and that remains unchanged. Sure, you could say there's a certain scent of Pink Floyd in
The Dark Third, as well as progressive rock elements that speak of Wilson’s Porcupine Tree sprinkled around, but especially when they shifted to moogs and synths to create the backbone of their sound with
Amor Vincit Omnia, I sort of lost track of the roots that carried that sound. Courtney has cited recently The Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails as influences, and I can certainly hear some of Corgan in those single finger power tone riffs, but on this album I also feel the shadow of Tool (please, stay!) looming over the drumming that opens "Our Prisms" and the wah wah guitar lead that weaves the entirety of "Cruel Deliverance". All in all, as soon as the vocals kick in, those influences vanish, and all I can hear it's Pure Reason Revolution’s unmistakable sound.
I said before that this is probably the heaviest that the band has ever been. "Scream Sideways" features some really wild riffing in the mid-sections, and the same goes for the latter half of "Phantoms", the intro riff of "Our Prism" or the chorus of "Dead Butterfly". This last song also takes me back to the electronic era of AVO, enriched even further with neck-bending beats and the usual flourishing fountain of vocal harmonies. "Phantoms" would be my pick as a favorite though, a short and sweet very danceable track that even Jon Courtney has declared he and his whole family used to dance to during some improvised disco nights.
I wouldn't say that
Above Cirrus is an album of highlights shadowing the more mid content though. As it was the case with
Eupnea, PRR's fifth release flows almost seamless from head to tail, balancing perfectly length and intensity. "Our Prism" and "New Kind of Evil" become almost a single, gigantic opening the album. "Cruel Deliverance" is a beautiful respite in the middle, and it allows you to breathe in preparation to the titanic "Scream Sideways", a ten-minute track that almost deserves a review of its own. "Lucid" closes the album with the same energy as the rest of the songs, spiraling out with a hypnotic chorus where the three vocalists shine as they intertwine their melodies into a gran finale of sorts.
Above Cirrus confirms Pure Reason Revolution as one of the most enticing bands in the... how to say this... alt prog electronic rock scene with an album that takes everything that
Eupnea did and pushes it even further. Oh, and it definitely takes me back to those nights of neon and debauchery in Tokyo. I know those are never coming back but who knows, I also thought once that PRR would never make new music, and here we are now, jamming above the clouds and beyond!
