THE COURAGE OF OTHERS

I find this album quite a step down from 2006's masterful Trials of Van Occupanther. The songs are much more lead vocal dominant and Tim Smith's lead vocals are much more monotonous. Slow monotone drone-like singing that sounds tired. Gone is the beautiful, evenly mixed blend of instruments and harmonized vocals. Gone is the upbeat, sometimes playful bounce and singing styles. No song stands out above the others as half a dozen on Van Occupanther border on stunning and spectacular. The one redeeming factor of The Courage of Others is the slight movement toward a sound more fitting to the prog world--like the Prog Folk groups of the 1970s and less like the perky Indie pop groups of the Naughties.

Album highlights: the delicate, emotional title song (3:20) (9/10); the insistent "Bring Down" (3:42) (9/10); the electrified "Winter Dies" (5:07) (8/10) and "Small Mountain" (3:39) (8/10).

This is a decent although monotonous album. Good for three stars.