Essentially, The grandly titled '
Alchemy Volume 1' is a selection of tracks from multi award winning Poets Of The Fall's 4 album back catalogue. These are laid out in chronological order, thus allowing you to observe how the band's sound has developed over an 8 year period.
There are also 2 new tracks bookending the old stuff, plus a DVD of the videos released to support the single releases from each album.
POTF's music consists of a satisfyingly rich and intoxicating mix of styles, incorporating elements of contemporary rock, MOR, pop, metal and melancholy, so to describe the band's music simply as postmodern or as alt rock is misleading.
It's that whole melange of sounds, percolated through a postgrunge filter, that holds the key to POTF's popularity, that strike-a-chord quality that took their debut album (and subsequent albums) to the top of the Finnish charts, where it stayed for a full year.
Marko's tremulous tenor - one moment whispering an intimate lyric, the next soaring over our heads, hand in hand with a big, dramatic chorus - is the band's weapon of mass persuasion.
Authoritative, passionate, it leads a swirl of strings, keyboards and guitars, in which instruments swim and mingle in blurry sonic alchemy on standout songs like
'Lift', 'Illusion & Dream' and the big production ballad,
'Sleep', all three taken from the debut album.
What I like most about POTF is the simple hook that baits each song.
Everything else is window dressing, finely tailored and classically cut.
Title track from the follow up album, '
Carnival Of Rust' has a strong acoustic, Mediterranean opening, one that's quickly whipped up into an emphatic, carefully controlled Gothic rock chorus.
The bass heavy '
Roses' stretches the formula into an attractive new shape, while
'Locking Up The Sun' sees them stepping onto a more conventional alt rock path. Each track benefits from a deftly orchestrated arrangement, sometimes simple, sometimes ornate, but always a match for the lyrical mood.
Only 2 tracks from '
Revolution Roulette'(2008) and 3 from latest release '
Twilight Theater' (2010) .
Picks would be the explosively metallic
'Ultimate Fling' from the former, and
'Dreaming Wide Awake' - gorgeously poptastic dance floor electronica, the standout track from the latter.
The band's musical palette is equally lavish on the 2 new tracks,
'Can You Hear Me' and
'No End, No Beginning', though both tracks have much more of a sense of introspection and accordingly, are sedately paced.
On these well-observed songs, delivered with sincerity and panache, the sound is even bigger, epic without getting blustery. Immaculate but vital, opulent but focused.
The DVD features the 9 videos - including a remastered '
Carnival Of Rust' as well as the original - that were released in support of the singles. The attraction of video content is always down to the taste of the individual, but clearly no expense was spared or lack of imagination shown on these.
All in all, a thoroughly entertaining "story so far". Favourite tracks will always be missing, but credit to the label for putting together such a comprehensive package.
Written by
Brian Monday, June 13, 2011
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