FOR THE MUSIC

First of all, Blackfield fans will not be disoriented. The new album "For The Music" is a series of short sometimes inspired (like For The Music), sometimes poppy (like Summer's Gone) or sometimes quite depressing (like It's So Hard) songs, well executed and well produced as usual that does not differ much from the previous albums. Aviv Geffen and Steven Wilson stay in their comfort zone, not even trying to risk something new like, why not, a 6-minute tune. The music in itself is not bad but it lacks the Wilson touch in my opinion. But, by listening to the upcoming new SW album, you quickly discover that the Wilson touch is not what it used to be ! But that's an other story. At the end, the most disappointing point would be the length of the album, that looks to me more like an EP : total time just over 30 minutes. Yes, you read right. 30 minutes. Which is in my opinion is rather outrageous. Hard to believe that 2 musicians as talented as Wilson and Geffen would not have enough materials for a couple of more songs. In this time of pandemic, I would rather listen to the new Wobbler album for helping me fight the gloomy atmosphere looming upon us. That said, For the Music is not my cup of tea but good enough to deserve 3 out of 5 stars.

BLACKFIELD his last album just before the release of the last WILSON! I say this because I am deeply convinced that one is the testing ground of the other; more dancing, less intimate sounds, a quick collaboration between Aviv and Steven to release short titles, to give the new version, the new sound that WILSON himself does not hesitate to say loud and clear. An album that risks being the spearhead of the composer and telling the whole world that rock is dead, so prog rock, you understand that it becomes ephemeral as a notion. This album is no less mauavis, it opens up new avenues, new perspectives in the current musical world. A little regret, the duration of this EP in fact, 30 minutes is short, and I dream of a next one with musical digressions, not to say progressive, ambient, latent, melancholy but digressions all the same to always want to follow the projects of the frontman. Aviv continues to sing to her, no matter what, and does it beautifully. In fact, this album advances the music of the 2020s, it's made ... for music!

Probably floats much closer to 2.5, but, slightly perversely, rounded down because I know I like Blackfield. A lot. Best choruses on this website. So, "FTM": in short, some decent ideas, no embarrassingly poor songs, but this is worse than the reviled IV. I know everyone here sets a different threshold for "mainstream pop", but to varying degrees, Blackfield's first five albums were high-quality albums in a more accessible vein. As in, loosely pop-rock, but far better written and executed than most of what litters the charts, and, on two occasions, just about deserving of 5 stars. We're in 2020 now, and Wilson's investment has basically gone by this point; he plays and sings a bit, but doesn't write or produce, which is what he does best. Consequently, we get terribly plastic-y, shiny production, mainly on the drums (genuinely unforgivable), and little of the richness, slightly retro feel that elevated previous releases.

Some of the songs are more than passable. "Falling" is probably the highlight, on the grounds that (1) it's the only song to exceed four paltry minutes, (2) great chorus (as usual with Blackfield) and (3) echoes of Porcupine Tree's "Dark Matter", but in 4/4. Singles "Summer's Gone" (at least by the end) and "Under My Skin" work pretty well as pure pop songs. The poptimist in me can defend for "After All" and "White Nights". The slower ones, though, where Blackfield usually excels, fall a bit flat. Closer "It's So Hard" is overwrought and sentimental, "Over and Over" is boring and "Garden of Sin" is the nadir; although it has a melancholy weight to it and a nice descending guitar figure in chorus, Geffen's singing is extremely poor and the verse beginning "So pick your grandma's sleeping pills / And one by one swallow them" somehow sinks deeper into self-lacerating parody. The opener is stompy and pop-sheened, as well.

Which is odd, because this isn't by any means a sombre album, as the best Blackfield albums are. There's just little to really commend here at all. Oh, and it's barely half an hour, which isn't problematic per se, but just leaves the whole thing feeling underwhelming. Even IV had some great cuts ("Lost Souls" and "Faking"), but this doesn't. It's not unlistenable by any means; I'd just never suggest any non-Blackfield-fan (prog or otherwise) listened to it ahead of the vast catalogue of decent-but-uninspired music out there.