BLACKFIELD

We are defintiely in the territoty of the furrowed brow, dimmed lighting, swirling trails of cigarrete smoke, gently spoken/sung lyrics over gently strummed acoustic guitar. Add a sprinkly of orchestra and layerd vocals ... ta na you have it

Open Mind (which you can listen to on the stream above) is a decent enough slow track in teh PT genre. Blackfield will also find a follwoing amongst the PT faithful. I'm always suspicious of albums which start out with 2 or 3 strong tracks. More often than not they slowly fade away.

Glow slows the tempo and deepens the mood. A for more intimate, almost breathed vocal over a muted mellow keyboard. It lifts towards the end. Scars has a bumpy feel muted bass that reminds me of the Kinks but then seems to shift into a more modern beat (which at one point almost gets a bit jungle). 'All I've left are my precious scars' is the chorus. Typically morose from Steve Wilson but typically excellent as well. the stand out track.

Lullaby has lyrics you wouldn't sing to a child unless you wanted them to become a manically depressed axe murderer, but the tune is a strereotypical lullaby. Pain opens with a very PT sound. Another very beautifully structured song.

It's Cloudy Now is another gloomy song in which the lyrics tell us the rain drowns the singer's pain. You may wonder if the upliftingly titled The Hole In Me will change the mood. Well no suprises: more self-reflective angst ridden lyrics. it has to be said that this is a much better track. the song chops from quiet thoughts to strident outbursts.

I listened to this album a lot when I got it. Then left it, played it occasionally and finally came back for a review. I had a pretty good idea how I rated it before the last detailed and considered listen. Good, OK-ish but not great: a bit popular song driven nothing to write home about.

However, to my great suprise this album rewards a little more attention, layers unfold and details come to the fore. I got it wrong. You should add this album to your collection.

Prog out of the top drawer, but be warned this is a deceptive slippery little mucker. Listen to it, set it aside and return: I hope, like me you will be suprised.

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