Welcome, my friends to the album you know. These are Broadway musical-level compositions. Everything about Edward Reekers’ The Liberty Project (Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group), a prog-opera bedecked with an ensemble cast is big, bombastic, colourful, and expansive.
Turn On. Tune In. Drop Out. That’s the overarching feeling with the newest Greta Van Fleet, Starcatcher (Lava/Republic Records). Starcatcher has swirling browns and oranges reminiscent of the seventies. It evokes lava lamps and black light posters. There is an earthiness to Starcatcher, a richness in tone. It’s an album that is felt as much as it is listened to. Starcatcher’s sound is as close to analog as you can get in this digital age.
The Raven Age’s Blood Omen (Music For Nations) is a scorcher of an album. It’s an album that was played on repeat prior to any writing of reviewing. It was super easy to get into this album as it sounds like music I’ve heard before and enjoyed thoroughly. The beginning song ‘Changing of the Guard’ throws you off as its operatic, European, and very folklore driven in tone. It’s a beautiful introduction but is not in the same genre as the rest of the album.