Page 88 - Classic Rock (February 2020)
P. 88
ALBUMS The Flower gaps for light and oxygen to
Kings
sneak in. It’s anxiety given form
Waiting For Miracles
reclaimed to create something
INSIDEOUT and substance, its crippling power
Fêted Swedish proggers return positive and empowering.
to comfortingly familiar form. QQQQQQQQQQ
Who knows Emma Johnston
quite how Roine
Stolt sees the Wolf Parade
band with Thin Mind SUB POP
which he is Canadian trio up for a fight.
synonymous. He seemingly put The fifth studio
The Flower Kings on hiatus after album from
2013’s Desolation Rose, released Montreal’s Wolf
2018’s Manifesto Of An Alchemist Parade comes
as ‘Roine Stolt’s Flower King’, fully-polished
then played shows as ‘Roine and listener-friendly with
Stolt And Friends Play The production courtesy of seasoned
Flower Kings’, while expressing US rabble-rouser John
ambitions to be more of a free Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-
agent, all bets seemed off. But Kinney, Unwound). Synths,
now all is as it was, and fans of ricocheting drums and wired
Yes-fixated harmonies (Wicked claustrophobic vocals from
Old Symphony, Steampunk), Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner
obstacle courses-worth of all sound like they could’ve been
gnarly, stop-start riffs (The Rebel lifted from a slice of Bowie vinyl
Circus, Miracles For America) and circa ’73. Neu romantic almost,
plenty of sweet melodies except neu romanticism rarely
(although non-fans of loudly sounds this ugly, this anxious.
farting fretless bass may wish to Songs like Out Of Control and
British Lion tread carefully) can rejoice: Under Glass feel tempestuous,
embedded with pathos and
Waiting For Miracles is an
85-minute serving of prog rock broad sweeps of emotion. Think
The Burning PARLOPHONE
comfort food. Roxy Music, The National. Think
‘Arry’s other army return on sizzling form. QQQQQQQQQQ of the disconnect between
Johnny Sharp physicality and social networks.
Think of everyday life, a constant
InMe striving for escape from the grey,
Jumpstart Hope KILLING MOON the mundane. Dreams bordering
s Iron Maiden fans will be more conspicuous as ever, but thanks to Essex rock crew harness the on the nightmarish, the state of
than aware, Steve Harris has been a brighter, breezier sound and power of their own fears. independent music at least 10
Arather busy over the seven years unmistakable hints of looseness and There’s years outside its comfort zone
that have passed between the first British swagger, everything from the briskly something and flailing around in search of
Lion album and the arrival of The Burning. uplifting title track to the brooding hulk of wonderfully a home. Now a trio, following the
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine exactly how Bible Black sparkles with freshness and plucky about departure in 2018 of multi-
instrumentalist Dante DeCaro,
InMe. Emerging
the bassist found time to write and record weirdly youthful vigour. While many from the UK’s post-hardcore Wolf Parade sound alert, ready
this new material, but fans of oh-so-classic contemporary classic rock bands seem boom of the early 2000s, the for a bruising.
rock will be very thankful that he did. fixated on reproducing the aesthetic Essex band have remained QQQQQQQQQQ
In truth, the first British Lion record specifics of bygone eras, songs like steadfast, returning now with Everett True
didn’t exactly set the world alight, despite motoring opener City Of Fallen Angels and a seventh album of their metallic,
being pretty damn good. A stoically preview single Lightning clearly favour emotional take on the genre. Paul Vickers
straightforward and melody-driven hard timelessness over nostalgia. Similarly, Frontman Dave McPherson And The Leg
rock record, it was full of great songs and melancholy closer Native Son wears its has always been open about his Jump TENEMENT
moments of gritty flash, with Harris’s prog influences with pride and dares to struggles with mental health, Surrealist, genre-twisting
finger-powered rumble dominating the saunter down a more restrained, acoustic and here he touches on antics from indie hero with
sonic background and vocalist Richard path, but the sum of those parts is simply everything from love and comic sideline.
Taylor’s engaging croon leading from the an irresistibly downbeat rock ballad, friendship to depression and “Gorilla, gorilla,
front. If there was a downside, it was that worthy of any era you care to mention. self-doubt, his voice capable of gorilla!” Ten
a slightly vexed and muddy production It may be significant that Harris’s bass is switching from ursine growl to years
ensured that the album was an acquired less domineering second time out: his choirboy croon to panicky, performing as
proggy warble in an instant. In surrealist
taste and, despite widespread great absurdly nimble fingers still propel the
reviews, wasn’t as celebrated as you might songs along, augmenting everything with The Next Song, the changes Edinburgh Fringe stalwart Mr
come so rapidly that it screams Twonkey has rubbed off on the
imagine a Steve Harris side-project might those trademark chords and flourishes,
of a soul freefalling in chaos, the solo projects of cackle-voiced
be. Fortunately, The Burning sounds vastly but never muddying the sonic waters with riffy core bolstered by strings ex-Dawn Of The Replicants
more punchy and powerful than its a surfeit of rumbling bottom end.
and fluttering piano to add to the frontman Paul Vickers. His
predecessor, while also giving the distinct Meanwhile, Taylor sings with unfussy sense of claustrophobia. Clear fourth album with his Edinburgh
impression that British Lion have evolved aplomb throughout, clearly thrilled to be History, meanwhile, sounds like cohorts The Leg makes pretty
into a fiery and characterful ensemble part of such an honest, unpretentious Strangers In The Night reimagined random references to great apes,
with a strong identity of their own. enterprise, and blessed with a generous in the middle of a 4am panic the joys of mixing sherbet and
We are still firmly in traditional rock helping of brilliant songs to sing. attack brought about by chilli and sleeping in a fridge.
territory here, and Harris’s love of UFO QQQQQQQQQQ a crashing comedown. Unhinged stuff matched by the
and Golden Earring remains as cheerfully Dom Lawson Jumpstart Hope is an intense music, a courtly clatter which
listen, a barrage of noise with no veers between cranky, corroded
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