'The Tirith' is a formation which was created in 1971 under the name of 'Minas Tirith' but which separated a few years later and it was not until 2010 that 'Richard Cory' and 'Tim Cox' decided to continue the adventure by changing the first name to keep only 'The Tirith'. Five years later came their first studio recording 'Tales from the Tower' with 'Carl Nightingale' on drums which was followed in 2019 by 'Leap in the Dark'. In a progressive style bringing us back to the 70s with various influences ranging from peaceful rock to energetic hard rock, they offer us their new album 'Return of the Lydia' released a few weeks ago. Favouring long developments, out of the seven titles in this opus, five have durations exceeding 9 minutes, which allows us to wander through sound labyrinths in which it is good to get lost by letting oneself go according to catchy melodic lines.
It is with the title song which is also the longest composition of the album that we begin our adventure with a 'Floydian' atmospheric introduction which continues on a slow tempo by unrolling a first endearing melody with the sweet singing of 'Richard Cory', and which gains vigour after about 5 minutes, picking up the pace for a catchy four-minute section (it is in fact this extract which was the subject of the title 'What Do You Say to an Alien' released as a single released in August 2022) and then returns to the slow tempo from the start in the last third. After this very beautiful title, 'Dying to Live' shows a more marked tempo which takes us into an epic composition which develops a more incisive atmosphere on new memorable melodic lines reminiscent of the Swedes of 'Jono' who unfortunately ended their adventure in 2021. Lighter, we find ourselves a few decades back with 'My People' which can make us think of the first 'Barclay James Harvest' and which conveys very well this atmosphere of carelessness which characterized the 70s with radiant guitars, then, we stay in this decade with 'Go the Drifter', a more direct title, which takes us into a rhythm and riffs à la 'Black Sabbath'. Follows 'Crystalwell' which shows a more relaxed face with guitars that light up the whole, the melodic lines being always catchy and the long central guitar solo being quite remarkable, then, 'The Uncertainty Principle' takes us into a mid -tempo with a more classic melody, and the album ends with the 10 minutes of 'The Meeting of the Ways' in a semi-acoustic atmosphere reminiscent of 'Barclay James Harvest' again but in their period of the 80s.
In summary, the English of 'The Tirith' continue their adventure with a new quality album mixing influences of progressive rock and classic rock of the 70s/80s and benefiting from still very harmonious melodic lines allowing to appropriate very quickly the whole at the first listening... | |
