Review Summary: One of the best prog rock albums of the 80s
If it ever catches on, I feel this album is gonna be a divisive entity on this site. On one hand its extremely moody, extremely well-executed music that emphasizes a dreamy element of progressive rock that is often left unexplored. On the other hand, your enjoyment of this record is based on how much you like the overall sound of the 80s. Because it is a record that is about as rooted in synthpop as it is prog rock. For this listener, this is great news.
While vocalist Mark Holiday and company retain a sound that can be compared to Genesis and Phil Collins' solo work of the mid 80s, it is run through an extra-powered kind of magic, safari-filter where tribal drums and euphoric synths dominate the space. The intro song "Usurpia" displays this perfectly, and its a beautiful choice to kick off the album with. This dreamy and unapologetically reverb-laden approach is a fantastic background for this kind of introspective prog. It is extremely calming and almost has a feeling of new age, but is far more refined in sound. A good comparison is a more poppy version of the first half of David Sylvian's 'Gone to Earth'.
Tracks like "How Beauty Attracts the Beast" brings on a kind of emotional and soothing tale, which flows right into the next track, "The Wind Fans the Flames" effortlessly. "The Children Won't Eat" flows and sounds quite like a brilliant Paddy McAloon track, and it lays the blueprint for more emotional prog experiments to come, eventually exploding into a caressing combination of fretless bass, acoustic guitar, a steady beat, and shimmering synths. A perfect track, and I think most will connect with the slow tale of ancient battles and warriors' lost promises. Holiday's serene vocals compliment Powell's swells of synth better than bread and butter. This is truly how you write an album that evokes myths of the past; using a unique ambient pop rock approach to prog. It comes off extremely organic and effortless.
This seemingly unknown band has quite a gem on their legacy, and not many of you are likely to have not heard this yet. If you are on the lookout for unique prog that is basically zero percent technical wank and one hundred precent songwriting and atmosphere, then look no further. Took me a couple listens, but this is up there with The Enid's "The Seed and the Sower" for greatest prog album of the 1980s.
"We were bright and shining beneath the summer stars..."
