DESTINED SOLITAIRE

Beardfish

Eclectic Prog

3.99 | 497 ratings

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aapatsos
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator

'Till you comply with their madness

I have spinned and enjoyed this album a few times now but it always leaves me with the same feeling: that of confusion.

Beardfish are a very talented and educated (from what I can hear in their music) band. They have a pretty unique, absolutely eclectic style, borrowing from the past, yet being ridiculously modern. Throughout this album I see so many ups and downs, get overly excited and disappointed within the same track a few times, and end up unsure of whether what I listened to was a masterpiece or a bunch of well-educated jazz/prog passages put together on an ad-hoc manner. The answer lies somewhere in the middle.

From the first track the effect that Gentle Giant and Zappa have had on Beardfish's music is evident. Flirting with, but never utterly reaching avant-garde, they seem to borrow from the symphonic elements of ELP and take their music forward with a very modern approach. There are several intentional "atonal" passages that simultaneously put me off and create some curiosity. Their lyrics are full of irony, utterly interesting and have a social/political tone - see "Until you Comply", one of the best tracks in here and with similarities to The Tangent. Quirkiness, quirkiness, quirkiness... is everywhere. From the accordion-led instrumental "Coup de Grace" to the VDGG-influenced "Abigail's Questions", the album surprises in all fronts. Especially dominant is the use of organ that provides a retro- and epic feeling at the same time (see the end of the closing track...).

"In real life there is no algebra" they claim, but in this album the maths are for the experienced solvers. For those that love quirky prog, this is probably a must, for the rest this could be a love-or-hate album. 3+ stars.

Highlights: Until you Comply, Coup de Grace, the irony in the lyrics

aapatsos | 3/5 | 2013-6-28

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