Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Prog, Artrock | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 162 / 7-8-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 7/10 | Label: Just For Kicks | Autor: AS
The quartet from the US state of Vermont presents their second album after last year's debut "Home Away From Home". It doesn't seem to have been a difficult birth, because keyboard man Adam Rabin, guitarist John Whyte and bassist Dan MacDonald, who also share the lead vocals in a brotherly way, and drummer Ornan MacLean play a loose flake and start where they left off with their debut. Not only when Whyte's on the mic, it reminds me of Rush. Besides his vocals, arrangements, guitar parts and bass sounds sometimes make one think of his Canadian colleagues. All in all, however, the quartet delivers a sound that is too independent to be reduced to this comparison. With all their virtuosity, complexity and attention to detail, the four Americans never lose their sense for fine melodic sequences and stringent song structures. This also benefits acoustic passages such as in "Endless (pt. 2)". The top track comes at the end: an exuberant progrocker in the truest sense of the word, offering harmony vocals, reef hardness and variety. Finally, elephants who know how to behave in a porcelain shop.
Top track: Mousetrap
