PINK FLOYD REVISITED

As a prog band Mostly Autumn are a bit hard to take too seriously, but that said I readily admit to liking almost everything they’ve put out to-date. Their out-of-print ‘Heroes Never Die’ still ranks as one of the best value compilations ever, and their early albums were each progressively more detailed and engaging than the one before.

But the band seems to have a bit of an idiot savant in the promotion department. Sometimes their choices of material are brilliant, as in the aforementioned ‘Heroes Never Die’ CD; the heavily promoted ‘V’ Shows; and the value-packed ‘Heart Full of Sky’ limited release. Other times one is left scratching their head: the great ‘Heroes Never Die’ gets pulled and replaced with a 2-disc compilation that is much more expensive and with diluted quality; the interminable live releases that even hard-core fans must be tiring of by now; and the tendency to push out stuff that challenges their legitimacy as a creative force standing on their own. The Lord of the Rings disc fits that description (although again – I readily admit to liking it); this album is another where one may question the wisdom of putting it out.

The connections between the band and Mr. Gilmour are well-known, as is Bryan Josh’s penchant for passing off heavily Gilmouresque riffs on pretty much everything the band does. But I fail to see how the band expected this to make any new inroads into the well-traveled wasteland known as Pink Floyd tribute albums. The only bands I can think of that have had more releases in their recognition are the Beatles and Queen (well, mostly Freddie really). And to make things worse, this is a live album (as if the band didn’t already have enough of these). I could almost see the appeal if the band had gone into the studio, perhaps with a couple of impressive guest artists or even an actual Floydite or two, and really put an effort into something innovative and interpretive and creative.

But this isn’t that. The performances here don’t add much to what Floyd did themselves so much better. Heather Findlay is of course adorable and very pleasant to listen to, and Bryan Josh is a very good arranger and guitar player, and a serviceable vocalist. The song selection is okay, with “Fat Old Sun” from ‘Atom Heart Mother’ and especially “Julia Dream” being a bit obscure and therefore a nice change of pace. “Julia Dream” in particular comes off as fresh and captivating, and could easily be mistaken for a Mostly Autumn original since even many casual Pink Floyd fans don’t know this song.

But the rest are far too predictable and done mostly with little embellishment or reinterpretation. “Comfortably Numb” in particular lacks real structure or focus, and ends up coming off as a sort of improvisational guitar jam that doesn’t do the material justice at all. Josh tries way too hard vocally on “Run Like Hell”, and “Hey You” comes off sounding a bit like what the Roger Waters Berlin live version would have sounded like with Findlay singing backup.

This is Mostly Autumn so it is a decent listen even if there’s nothing original or overly interesting here. But these guys are capable of so much more, or at least I think they are. Hard to say since they haven’t released anything new that has been truly impressive since 2001’s ‘The Last Bright Light’ (prophetic title, maybe?). So if this were some run-of-the-mill band I’d give this three stars. But for a band with this much apparent talent, more should be expected. Two stars.

peace