I haven't done very many reviews of CDs or music DVDs throughout my listening life, but when creating this site, I
thought...what the hell. Let's do it. Maybe someone out there is
actually interested in my thoughts on music releases. So here
goes:
Rating: 5 Stars (out of 5)
Sweden’s Moon Safari strikes again. This third release from the
quintet serves up another slice of their unique brand of
symphonic prog. Released on their own Blomljud label,
Lover’s End is a much more reserved artistic statement
from Simon Åkesson
(keyboards and vocals), Petter Sandström (acoustic guitar and
vocals), Pontus Åkesson (electric guitar and vocals), Johan
Westerlund (bass guitar and vocals), Tobias Lundgren (drums and
vocals), and Sebastian Åkesson (misc. and vocals).
The follow-up to 2008’s
excellent Blomljud release, Lover’s End declines
the bombast of the half hour epic "Other Half of the Sky"
and maybe doesn’t have an earworm at the magnitude of
"Bluebells"
or anything quite as brilliant as "The Ghost of Flowers
Past." However, if Moon Safari was swinging for a simple,
melodic album, free of fat and loaded with meat, they hit it out
of the park with Lover’s End. Melodies are the
main course, with some wonderful and unexpectedly odd time
signatures thrown in sparingly for dessert.
If you’re expecting
something new from Moon Safari, you won’t get it. They don’t
mine any new territory on this album. That’s okay. The band has
discovered what it’s good at and does it well. They have their
sound, which is unique in the progressive rock world, and they
own it wholeheartedly. Lush, layered vocals in a Beach
Boys/Manhattan Transfer/Crosby, Stills & Nash kind of way,
infectious keyboard-driven melodies, courtesy of Simon
Åkesson, the delicate
acoustic work of Sandström and decorative electric guitar
work by Pontus Åkesson
are in abundance, as usual.
"Lover’s End Part I"
opens the album with a beautiful piano intro, followed by
harmonica, before the trademarked silky smooth vocals kick in,
like velvet in your ears. Piano, vocals and keyboards continue
to be the solid base of the band’s wonderful sound throughout
the 51-minute journey. This opening piece sets the scene for
what’s to come and features a wonderful turn of phrase in the
lyrics (“time will just wound all the heels”). Not a bad job of
turning an English phrase inside out for a bunch of guys from
Sweden.
The outro to Lover’s End
Part I leads directly into the keyboard theatrics of the second
number, "A Kid Called Panic," the album’s longest piece,
clocking in at about 14 minutes. The vocals on this one will
crawl inside your head and stay for weeks, and you won’t want it
to leave! The chorus of "Help, I need to escape, I don’t belong
in here..." will stay with you long after the disc stops
spinning. This is a good thing. Embrace it.
"Southern Belle"
shows off the band’s vocal work stripped of all instrumentation.
An astounding first minute of a capella voices gives way to
gentle piano and subtle guitar. This ballad is like a warm,
fluffy blanket. It’s just so soothing.
The title of the fourth
track - "The World’s Best Dreamers" - is a perfect way to
describe this band. Simon’s
keyboards are perhaps their strongest here, while Pontus
provides some subtle flavor. But above it all are the vocals
once again. Let's face it, this band could make an album with no
instruments and it would still be excellent.
"New
York City Summergirl" has a bit of a different flavor to the
rest of the album - maybe a bit more soul - though it still
fueled by the band’s great strengths: vocals, keyboards, and
interesting guitar that hides in the shadows until popping out
to surprise. It reminds me a little of "Yasgur’s Farm"
from Blomljud at times. At the end, following a brief a
capella section, there’s a wonderful nod to Frank Sinatra that
brings a smile to my face every time I hear it.
Mellotron? Yes!
"Heartland" opens with some tron, or at least a keyboard
patch aping a Mellotron. A symphonic prog cliché, perhaps, but
used to great effect here. This song pushes the typical Moon
Safari dreamlike tempo into more adventurous territory.
Lundgren’s drums and Westerlund’s bass provide the velocity
through the mind-twisting time signature on the album’s most
rocky track, while Simon and Pontus Åkesson team up on an
outstanding dual keyboard and guitar line. But this is Moon
Safari, so once again the vocals stand above all.
The second and final
long-form song is "Crossed the Rubicon" at just under 10
minutes. A gentle beginning builds slowly, with elements like
organ and slide guitar, creeping into the mix and concocting
another Moon Safari gem. None of these songs sounds exactly the
same, but they are all unmistakably Moon Safari songs.
"Lover’s End Part II"
gently brings the album to a close, as the back cover of the
book that Part I opened. At 1:57 this song, which harkens back
to "Because" by the Beatles, leaves you wanting more,
which pretty much echoes the album. In this day and age, 51
minutes is a short album, but that’s partly what works so well
about Lover’s End. You immediately want to hear it again.
If I have to nitpick a
little, it’s that I’d like a little more oomph on Westerlund’s
bass. But there’s really nothing else I’d change about
Lover’s End. The album doesn’t overstay its welcome and in
their brevity the band is able to avoid some of the criticisms
that have been aimed at fellow Swedes, The Flower Kings. After
hearing Lover’s End, one is torn between salivating at
what’s next from this band and simply letting the current album
melt in your mouth.
Track
List:ist:
1. Lover's End Part I
2. A Kid Called Panicic
3. Southern Belle
4. The World's Best Dreamers
5. New York City Summergirl
6. Heartland
7. Crossed the Rubicon
8. Lover's End Part II
