I would just like to point out, before I get into the musical features of this recording, that I am still entirely ignorant as to why there are mountains after listening to this album. If you’re after geographical enlightenment, this is not the album for you.

It’s very difficult to describe this album because it’s very difficult to pick out exactly where the band were trying to take their sound. This isn’t just difficult for a reviewer, it’s a pain in the backside for the casual listener. It’s impossible to make your mind up as to whether you like something when you feel that not even the band really knows what’s going on. Take the album opener, And The Hazy Sea, for example. One minute everything’s going great, and then all of a sudden they launch into what feels like a four-hour instrumental of feedback and tuneless screaming. It isn’t nice. Feedback was brought into rock music for a purpose. It’s not just there to add decoration, it’s there to make a statement. If you’re not making a statement, don’t use it. Simple.

The album is only nine tracks long but each song seems to last a lot longer than it should do. Seven out of the nine tracks are over four minutes long and three of those are well over seven minutes long. The really annoying thing is that in each of the songs there are about three and a half minutes’ worth of really great material. What’s wrong with just recording a normal-length song? Why do they have to pad it out and ruin it with all the prog-rock nonsense? That genre is now truly over. Rock has progged. It was decided that instrumentals that lasted more than twenty minutes were actually pointless. Didn’t they get that memo?!

It isn’t that they aren’t talented. It isn’t that there’s nothing to appreciate about their music. Not at all. There are some really great things to enjoy about this album. Some Trees (Merritt Moon) and Cold Springs are both cracking numbers. The band just needs to stop being so downright pretentious. There is no shame whatsoever in just writing great rock music. They’re capable of it, so why they don’t just get on and do it is entirely beyond me.

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