NARROW IS THE ROAD

Wow, never expected to have a band reach out to me to review one of their new albums. That is definitely an exciting thing to notice as it can mean discovering new and interesting music from new, possibly groundbreaking artists. It is fun discovering music. Although, sometimes you might get something that doesn't work for you, and I find Narrow Is The Road, the newest release of Compassionizer, aka the band that recommended this record, doesn't quite work for me.

I do not wish to lay down all the negatives right from the get go since I do not desire to bash any band 'less I feel they deserve a high amount of criticism, so to start: I find this album's sound to be very pretty in many cases. The band merging delicate uses of folk, and classical with very prominent Avant Garde jazz that Frank Zappa or Henry Cow could make is something I am quite fond of. They are very clearly talented musicians, and their talent really does shine with songs like Black Sky White and Road. You get very soft and delicate passages for the most part, but sometimes the band can rise a bit, ever so slightly to where once you notice it, it sort of sticks with you throughout the album, which I think is great. You gotta make your music stick to your audience, and the best way to do that is to create an impression with a treatable sound. For me, this album, for the most, does deliver on a more than welcome sound.

My problem with this album lies within the lack of any real juice behind these weirder passages of music. I can tell these are very good musicians, and I highly respect their craft, but I feel as though they aren't playing with their hearts. The music here sounds rather empty, and more weird to be weird rather than being weird to make a statement, or to be funny, or just to make something off the walls in how they can break expectations away from you. I do not expect, nor do I wish for them to be as silly as The Residents, nor as chaotic as The Cardiacs, but I do want to see a little more meat and a little more bones in this work.

Songs like the title track and the big 14 minute song of Kramatorsk never really felt rewarding in their weird passages, and more sounded like background noise. It is a shame, I know, for me to call really good musicians creating generally good sounding music to be background noise, but I felt a lack of passion, or, a lack of interest within the sound they created on here. I really do wish I could like this album a lot more, but I cannot seem to fully get into it, or appreciate it.

Again, I do not wish to bash the band for making this album, but I do hope they improve as music creators and composers in their next release. They are clearly a strong bunch and hard workers as they released albums in 2020 and 2021, so I am intrigued on their next release. As it stands, though, this album is not really my cup of tea, and I feel like there are many things to improve on here. It is a unique listen, but not one I am dying to listen to over and over again.