THE SPIRIT OF AUTUMN PAST

The second album by MA reveals best the quality the band has within. Although the opening track is in no way one of their stronger songs this collection of songs will appeal to anyone who likes Pink Floyd mixed with traditional Celtic music blended with some classical spheres. These can be heard in 'Pieces of love', probably one of the best ballads they ever did, in the four folkish songs that make up the middle section of the album and that is highlighted in 'Evergreen', one of the first full contributions by Heather Findlay. That song has everything that makes MA such an outstanding band; a splendid vocal melody, an exciting build-up of the song and tremendous coda on guitar by Bryan Josh. It is still played live as it is one of the many highlights in their entire career. The latter can, unfortunately, not be said of 'The gap is too wide'. This long song is written by keyboardist Iain Jennings in memory of his mother. For me this song is, together with 'Heroes never die' (from All we shared) and 'Shrinking violet' (from The last bright light), the best MA has ever done. The extremely soft beginning, with mellow vocals, acoustic guitar and soft keyboards, working towards some spoken words, picking up the melody again, developing into guitar and uileann pipe solo after which the full band bursts into a full orchestral coda is nothing less than outstanding. But they never play it live anymore which is a shame (but understandable, nevertheless). The song is also a worthy end piece for a great album. It is more than recommended!!