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Mostly Autumn - The 'V' Shows CD (album) cover

THE 'V' SHOWS

Mostly Autumn

 

Prog Folk

3.72 | 26 ratings

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Finnforest
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Mostly enjoyable but short of great.

Here's a show which brought a wide variety of elements to the table which could make it appealing to a good percentage of our readers. You have the pop sensibilities of an All About Eve combined with the Celtic Folk vibe. From there you inject a bit of the vocal intimacy of Over The Rhine and of course the blast of obvious Dave Gilmour rock guitar influence. (Dave Gilmour must be like the prog version of chicken. You know how people will say just about anything "tastes like chicken." In prog reviews it seems that about everything "sounds like Gilmour." I'm guilty of it myself from time to time but in this case it is quite true-Bryan Josh more than references Dave here, he sometimes appears to attempt channeling him.)

From there Mostly Autumn is exciting enough on its own power with the heartfelt vocals, dazzling guitar, flute, strings, and powerful drumming. I comment here on the performance and not the material itself of which I'm not all that familiar. As mentioned the show is more than entertaining enough but has some flaws as well. Individually the vocalists can do quite well but sometimes together their harmonies sound a bit off. The mix at times could be atrocious with the guitar ridiculously loud and undisciplined cymbal crashing that all but drown out the flute or strings in a few places. The light show was nice and not overly distracting but the selection of camera shots could be downright irritating at times, I remember Josh being blocked often in the early going by his mike stand-a little detail which should easily have been noticed by someone. Lindlay is a strong presence and a decent vocalist but not among the very best. The same with Josh, he's quite good but both vocally and instrumentally he lacks the smoothness of Gilmour. While it's not fair to compare apples to oranges the point is that in my opinion the talents of Mostly Autumn are good but not timelessly great.I think they are a blast to watch but not quite to the 4 star level, at least in this show. By far the best moments were the quiet ones when the band stopped trying to rock heavy and simply let the atmosphere of the strings, flute, and keyboards have a chance to compete above the din. There were two MA's on the stage in this show, the softer one did incredibly well, the heavier one has some work to do with the presentation of their sound. 3 ¼ stars.

Finnforest | 3/5 |

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