Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Bent Knee - Frosting CD (album) cover

FROSTING

Bent Knee

Crossover Prog

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Bookmark and Share
ScottTisdel
1 stars Well, at least the title fits. Not much of substance here. Bent Knee has chosen to go with an electronic, poppy sound that is heavily and coarsely produced. The songs and arrangements are commonplace, with a few exceptions. Gone is most of Ben Levin's guitar (electric and acoustic), at least in recognizable form. There are nice piano-based moments, but mostly we hear washes of sythns, midi patches and noise. Jessica Kion's bass has been digitized out of existence. Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth's superb drumming meets a similar fate. Chris Baum might as well have stayed home - I hear almost no violin at all. They have one of the best singers in the business (Courtney Swain), and she sounds very average on this record, her voice distorted by auto tune, echo effects and reverb, too often swamped by the mix.

The most important person in Bent Knee seems to have become Vince Welch, the guy with the laptop at the back of Bent Knee's live shows. I find his manipulations mildly irritating live (especially when Swain's voice is altered), but as the producer on this record he seems to have run amok. The sound seems constantly tinkered with, with unpleasant results.

This from a wonderfully talented band that produced three great albums in a row (Shiny Eyed Babies, Say So, Land Animal), and some extraordinary live stuff on youtube, including "Paper Earth", which is so gorgeous I think they should release it as a DVD/BluRay. They really need to get back to what made them unique, which is focusing on Swain's extraordinary voice, and creating meticulous, beautiful arrangements with real instruments. Until then, they're just another alt-rock band.

A reluctant one star for me.

Report this review (#2657208)
Posted Friday, December 31, 2021 | Review Permalink
santisoux
5 stars I find it daring, how a band that pushes boundaries has managed to create such a collection of songs that, indeed, are not placed within the realms of a typical progressive rock album. But, nevertheless, the creativity and the craftsmanship of the different instrumentation is there. Progressive rock has always been for me, a way to push tastes and ways of making music. Of course a in a more conservative approach what we have here is less attached to what people expect from an art-rock band, and that is what is positive here, very in the way SW managed to create something completely different, here we have a band from Boston that has always figured out a way to surprise listeners. The Art-pop we hear, the existence of multiple electronic effects and the soul of the album still carries the central idea of the band: never stop experimenting with sound, ideas, harmonies and music itself. A good lesson for people who tend to want their bands to remain in one sound, and specially in a time where new conservadurism is spreading like a pandemic al around the world.
Report this review (#2669182)
Posted Thursday, January 6, 2022 | Review Permalink

BENT KNEE Frosting ratings only

chronological order | showing rating only

Post a review of BENT KNEE Frosting

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.