Definitely, after the Swedes from 'Sabaton' , the albums related to the world wars follow one another. But, this one is far from the epic power metal of the Swedes because it is the last album of 'Cosmograf', led by the multi-instrumentalist and singer 'Robin Armstrong' who had delighted us with his previous releases, 'The Unreasonable Silence' in 2016 , 'The Hay-Man Dreams' in 2017, 'Mind over Depth' in 2019 and 'Rattrapante' in 2021. With each release of a new concept album, we are sure to have to put ourselves between the ears of the music of quality coupled with an always original story. For her 9th baby, Robin tells us the story of an RAF pilot during the Second World War who is now 99 years old. No surprise in this latest opus, we find ourselves a few decades back with a mixture of progressive influenced by 'Pink Floyd' and melodic lines that can be reminiscent of those of 'Barclay James Harvest', and, to make the music stick on the developed subject, 'Robin Armstrong' offers us particularly melancholic and emotional atmospheres.
'I Recall' welcomes us with a sound extract and continues in a refined atmosphere highlighting the whispered singing of Robin accompanying himself on the piano. From the start, the emotion released already takes us on a warm little cloud! This is followed by the 13 minutes of the eponymous title of the album, which continues in a solemn procession on a slow tempo interspersed here and there by very beautiful 'Gilmourian' guitar solos, the piano accompaniment of keyboardist 'Danny Manners' of 'Big Big Train' being all simply sublime. The short interlude 'Industry', reminiscent of the atmospheres deployed by 'Roger Waters', precedes 'British Made' which brings together all the pieces of a 'Waterian' puzzle, the high-pitched vocals of 'Robin Armstrong' bringing poignant emotion, the acoustic guitar enveloping the whole by a beautiful delicacy and the guitar solo spinning us goosebumps in all the body. Follows the short ballad 'Mary' which deploys an atmosphere filled with a melancholic serenity and which offers us a very endearing melody bringing us back this time to the 'Beatles'. Even more refined, 'Blinkers' is a magnificent piano/voice duo and we flirt with the stars while listening to the aerial vocalizations, then, 'If Things Don't Change', always on a slow tempo, develops new moving melodic lines and the addition of reverberation in Robin's singing contributes to this feeling of floating in the air. We continue in this stripped-down atmosphere with 'The Same Stupid Mistake' and with a new touching piano/voice duo, then, 'Regretful Refrain' adds again to this emotion released throughout the album, whether through plaintive singing or by the heart-breaking electric guitar, the light crescendo bringing even more force to this title which brings us to tears. The album ends with 'A Better World' on the starting theme with a strong new message of hope for a better world and which ends with a final section, powerful and epic of immense emotional intensity: the loop is closed.
In summary, as you will have understood, 'Robin Armstrong', with his project 'Cosmograf', adds an intense and poignant new album which can only move, and which brings together all the ingredients to make it a work major progressive which should join the ideal discotheque of any amateur and any progressive rock fan through the ages... | |
