HEART FULL OF SKY

While I love Mostly Autumn's other albums, this is very poor. It has not got any tracks that stand out as great, and some that are well below par, especially for this band. A line up change has happened since their previous album with Chris Johnson replacing Iain Jennings on keyboard. But in fairness i don't think he can be blamed for this loss of form, he did write my favourite track 'silver glass' and leads the vocals admirabley on another of the better songs 'ghost'.' Half a world' and 'yellow time' are two other songs which I do quite like but others just don't work at all for me. 'Pocket watch' is the weakest song with sloppy lyrics and 'open road' sounds unfinished.' Dreaming' is potentially a great song but it is about such an emotional & upsetting subject (twin towers)that it's hard to just get on and enjoy it. Overall the drumming is used almost incidentally as is the second guitar. Angela Gordon who is (in my opinion) one of the greatest flautists on the scene is almost totally missing from the album and even underused on keyboard (also an excellent player). Troy Donockley and Anne-Marie Helder both make guest appearances and perform ably, and Olivia Sparnenn who is now a semi permanent member of the band also does some lovely backing vocals. Other guests appear on the album including McKinty Gordon (Angela's husband) which is a nice touch. It's a real shame that this album lacks direction and conviction and has no true classics. Perhaps the regular release single disc will pick out the better parts and I hope it does well, but this is definitely the worst Mostly Autumn album for me.