BLOOM

3.5 stars. My first ride on CALIGULA'S HORSE was back in 2016 with their second album "The Tide, The Thief & River's End". I had picked up that cd and the followup "Bloom" at the same time, but when that record wasn't clicking I decided to put off spending time with "Bloom" until later. I just didn't expect "later" to be over 9 years. Welcome to my life. I have much the same feelings with this one as I did their previous record. Again it's not clicking. Although there are a couple of tracks that I really liked.

It was nice to see this band is still current, releasing an album in 2024, their sixth. The lineup has changed over the years but the constants have been singer Jim Grey and guitarist Sam Vallen. And they are from Australia! A five piece on this 2015 album with a second guitarist, no keyboards save for the guest piano, who also adds flute. The album opens and closes with relaxed vocals and acoustic guitar. The difference being that the opener does kick in hard around 2 minutes. Surprisingly and awkwardly hard.

The followup "Marigold" is a top two. It's uniform and mid paced where everything just sounds good. A nice guitar solo after 4 minutes. I'm not a big fan of the final minute or so. My favourite is "Firelight". It's catchy with reserved vocals early. I like how "into" this one I am. I'm not as big on the more powerful sections though. I feel the sae about the heavy sections on "Turntail" but that's a song I just am not into. Guest piano on "Dragonfly" which is ballad-like early before turning more passionate, then heavy. A calm before 4 minutes. This is the longest piece at 9 1/2 minutes.

A good album and band that gets consistently good ratings. Just not my cup of java though despite the talent level.

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