& YET & YET

This album largely keeps to the compositional styles set by their second album ("Goodbye Enemy Airship..."), but without any obvious killer tracks like they had on that album. The songs on this album actually have a bit more obvious structure, and each tune usually has a few different sections that it moves through, which shows some positive evolution. The guitars and trumpet (when present) once again steal the show from the synth, and there is some great jazzy drumming in here too. One thing I notice about this album which probably keeps down its ratings vis a vis their other albums (like "Goodbye...") is that the best tracks are found at the end of the CD, while the weaker tracks appear in the first half. While I like the first two tracks, I have to admit they cannot compare with the best on "Goodbye", and the middle two tracks are quite weak (particularly "Chinatown", which is basically just a synth wash). So, I could imagine some reviewers making up their minds from the first half and perhaps not really listening to the later tracks. For me each of the last three tracks is wonderful, and they largely presage the music that would be made on their later albums. "Reitschule" is full of jazzy drumming, great bass grooves, and wonderful trumpet chordal build-up from Charles Spearin. A really lovely song, and my favourite on this album. "Soul and Onward" has another then-first for the band, a make-shift choir, which along with the horns (including sax) produces a wonderful atmosphere as the track builds. The closer, "Anything for Now", is structured around a very nice nostalgia-feeling inducing guitar-chord pattern that builds with trumpets and the like for the first half, and then fades into a synth drone over which a collage of sounds (backwards acoustic guitars?) builds, ending the album on another satisfying albeit sleepy note. On balance, I give this album 6.8 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to mid 3 PA stars. If you, like me, really like "Other Truths", then you will like the last three tunes here.

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