THE SPIRIT OF AUTUMN PAST

Mostly Autumn produced a mixed debut album. A dull mood, average compositions. Still, there were signs that it could only be better. Wonderful vocal harmonies to back up a good progressive-folk-rock music.

The album opens rather hardly : "Winter Mountain" has little to do with "Prog Folk" to be honest. It is quite a heavy song, but lacks of everything : mood, soli, harmony etc. It just sound noisy. Fortunately, the next "This Great Blue Pearl" will feature a superb guitar solo that only Gilmour could have played.

"Pieces Of Love" is a mellow folk-ballad. Heather sounds beautiful here. Unfortunately she will not be so much on the front end during this album. I just love her voice. Very melodic, just a beautiful song. A profund violin solo will add a special flavour to this quiet song.

Things will get even better with "Please". I guess that wit such a title, they only couldn't deceive their fans. This number gets back to their roots : powerful vocal harmonies and a slightly rockier tempo. A true MA classic structure I would say.

"Evergreen" is one of the long numbers on this album. It takes a while to kick off. Almost four minutes, and then I finally can listen to the MA I prefer : strong vocals, a Floydian guitar solo (once more) will close this number brilliantly. We'll even get some frensy during the finale. Just wonderful. One of the highlight so far.

"Styhead Tarn" will bring us back to normality. A filler which was not really necessary when you consider the lenght of the album (almost seventy minutes).

I most appreciate the band when playing live. Then, we get a condensed approach of their best numbers, which is fine with me. I am reviewing this album quiet late at night, and I had to listen to it again after "Pieces Of Love" because I just felt asleep (I mean it). I woke up for "Shinding" which is a full Scotish (or Celtic) folk number. It is definitely not the prototype of the songs I love. It might have been pleasant for a folklore ensemble... Fortuntalely, it is a short number... But there will be too many too short numbers on this album.

Obviously, the debuts of MA will not count with the best moments of the band : "Blakey Ridge, When Waters Meet" is a dull (but short) instrumental that will only be saved from mediocrity thanks to a nice violin play during the second (short) half. The Oriental influenced "Underneath The Ice" won't be remembered as a marvel, I'm afraid. Repetitive and boring. At this stage, I am really suffering. "Through The Window" sounds just the same to me. It only lift off a bit during the last part. But that's a bit short.

We are slowly reaching the end of the album with "The Spirit Of Autumn Past". Part one is a peaceful piano break which will introduce "Part Two". This piece of music of course can only please me thanks to its wonderful vocal harmony and chorus. Still, as they will say : "We're running out of time, But the time is still behind us". I love this song an awful lot, which only adds to my perplexity about this album.

So, I'm ready for the closing number. The longest one of this album. "The Gap Is Too Wide" : hopefully I' won't fell asleep again (it is almost 5 AM by now). We do not need to wait long for the judgement : wonderful vocal intro from Heater. For having seen some live moments of the band, I just can tell that she is beautiful and if I would only be a lot younger than I am, I would really like to philosophize with her about... whatever. Anyway, they told us that : "We're running out of time, but the time is still behind us", so what I am talking about !

She has a so brilliant voice ! This song is really closing the gap towards great numbers (actually, it is a really great one). The fantastic guitar break in the closing sequence is 100% Gilmouresque. But it is so great, so nice, so emotional that I can hardly resist. Would you join me Heather ? Oooooh ! I guess it's time to wake up.

This number is my fave on this album and belongs to my top five of the band. A brilliant number, indeed.

This album is not the one that will convince me. It is very pleasant at times (but too few of these moments are featured here to my ears). Precisely during 32'17". I am very hesitant for the rating. Actually five out of ten should represent my opinion quite faithfully. You need to separate the weath from the chaff in this album.

Since it is (not yet) possible to rate on a ten points scale, I will upgrade this one to three stars.