III

A long wait for their third album, but the group members were busy at their own solo albums, Greg Weeks have 5 or 6 to his credit, where Meg Baird released early this year her first (or second, I can't be sure), while Helena Espvall release a second collaboration album with Masaki Batoh. Sooo anyway, three years is a long time. Unchanged line-up, still a great artwork (very pagan folk and Amerindian native art on the cover, but musically, there is a slight shift towards more standard folk rock, slowly reaching Fairport Convention-type of folk rock. The music on III is definitely more "modern" and less "medieval" than on II, but it is also more varied and maybe monotonous, in the literal sense of the word, not to be confused with boring.

If the group manages a good start with Can't See Clear and Golden Dust, the album soon drowns in a semi-coma with Caroline (not the Wyatt track) and The Pearl, which sounds like even the band don't believe in those tracks - especially the latter, which had everything to boost a turbo and reach another dimension. So for the first four tracks, the mood seems upbeat for Espers, which is a bit of a change from their usual melancholy. Well the group doesn't abandon their previous spookiness altogether either since That Which Darkly Thrives and Sightings, both slower and more brooding pieces that evoke a bit their first two albums. But the darkness doesn't last and while the mellotron-laden Meridian is melancholic enough and Colony is the album's centrepiece. Indeed the album returns to a more upbeat mood with Trollslanda, a good closer with an excellent bravura middle section. Most likely this album will need a bit more time and listens than their predecessors, which were more immediately pleasing.

If you can find the gatefold mini-Lp version of this album, by all means jump for it, because it looks much better than the digipak version that I ordered through their label site (which arrived with a crushed tray). So while less spooky and more varied, Espers sort of demystify themselves and go blander, most likely in an attempt to widen their appeal and reach a new audience. But in the meantime, this proghead thinks this album doesn't reach the heights of their previous albums, but III remains a very decent album. Whether it will be worth keeping in a few years (when time for a good shelf trimming cut) is not yet clear, though.