The Americans of 'Manchester Orchestra', after 'A Black Mile to the Surface' in 2017 which had been very well received by music critics (see the beautiful live in youtube ici),, released a new studio recording 'The Million Masks Of God' in which they tell us the story of a man who is undoubtedly close to death and who re-examines various episodes of his life through the intermediary of the Angel of Death. Given the theme, we find certain atmospheres from the last opus but the whole is certainly less energetic while keeping this great emotional force made of tensions and relaxations with melodic lines which are immediately tamed.
So we navigate in an ocean of emotion starting with 'Inaudible' and its soaring and subtle melody with beautiful vocal harmonies which continues without transition with 'Angel of Death' which gently brings the electric instruments in a resolutely more rock style with nice variations in intensity, then, 'Keel Timing', which was the subject of a single, follows with more electronic sounds in rather classic pop/rock style, which we find again in the following title 'Bed Head' practically on the same schema. With 'Annie', the vocal performance of 'Andy Hull' passes a beautiful emotion and the quiet rhythmic on a soft melody makes it one of the most endearing compositions, then, the second part of the album is much more centered on ballads which materializes for example with the very beautiful 'Telepath' with a particularly delicate voice/acoustic guitar/cello trio, then 'Let It Storm' which brings us back to the song of the 60s with an endearing melody close to what could do 'Simon & Garfunkel' and we find this atmosphere in the following title 'Dinosaur' with a rhythmic rhythm box having electronic sounds. The end of the album features a slight 'Obstacle', then two new ballads with 'Way Back' and 'The Internet', the latter offering a vaporous atmosphere and energetic acceleration in the second part before falling back into the nonchalant melody of the beginning.
In summary, the Americans of 'Manchester Orchestra', theme obliges, are releasing a more introspective album with this characteristic style that exhibits a skin-deep sensitivity and 'The Million Masks Of God' should appeal to a relatively large audience thanks to melodic lines that we appropriate from the first listening... | |
