The sinister cover art reminds me of Derek Van Armin's 'Just Killing Time'. But that's another story.
Sounds like Trent Gardner's been listening to a lot of Procol Harum and Trevor Rabin's ultimate
Yes release 'Talk'. And maybe Kansas.
This is undoubtedly Magellan's most accessible, most immediate (in relative terms) release, and is all the better for it. No point in making your material inaccessible. Nobody wants to listen to it. Except maybe obsessives.
On
'Innocent God', labyrinthine arrangements, esoteric sounds and hard-to-love tunes have been elbowed out. Instead, the album is densely populated by tantalising melodies, real choruses and sinuous hooks, combined with a genuinely epic feel to many tracks.
Not by any stretch of the imagination does this mean shallow or disposable.
'Innocent God' is just as engaging, just as absorbing as the band's previous work, moreso because you get pulled in much more quickly.
What hasn't changed, thank God, innocent or not, are Gardner's driving narratives. Insightful, philosophical and filled with provocative themes. Interpretation isn't always easy, but it makes a change from sex, drugs and 9/11.
I've read complaints that the album "isn't experimental enough" and bizarrely, that the songs "aren't long enough".
Seven songs over 45 minutes seems fine to me. And if Gardner's switch of focus to crafting songs of a more elegant, immediate nature, then wrapping them up in imaginative, richly textured arrangements and cutting edge sonics is a problem, it's one I can live with.
As the cliché goes, every track here has something to offer. From
'Invisible Bright Man's proggy, jazzy structure and sudden surge of bass heavy keyboards, to the quiet, religious intensity of '
Who To Believe' framed only in piano and string quartet.
From '
My Warrior's shuffling rhythms and dancing strings to '
Slow Burn's pumping, hard rock attitude.
That said, album standout, though the margin is narrow has to be '
Found'.
A saga of natural disasters and stoical suffering, this track is built around ethnic, feet in the dust rhythms. Eventually, almost inevitable it seems, it soars and grows majestically into a stylish epic. It's a song that typifies today's Magellan, and is one among many that should see them return to the forefront of the genre, whatever that might be.
Written by
Brian Sunday, July 22, 2007
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