After a first album ‘Pattern-Seeking Animals’ less than a year ago, the Americans of ‘Pattern-Seeking Animals’ released a new album ‘Prehensile Tales’. The members or ex members of 'Spock's Beard' continue their adventure and 'Prehensile Tales' is roughly in the same format as its predecessor, almost an hour of listening, with the difference that it has only 6 tracks , against 9 for the first, but with longer titles which make think that the followers of progressive are going to feast.
At the first listen, it is indeed what we discover with 'Raining Hard In Heaven' which takes us on a first long development with sounds of keyboards typical of the 70s and beautiful instrumental parts which recall the melodic lines of 'Renaissance' (see their latest album here and the remarkable covers of 'Fleesh' here) and 'Here In My Autumn', which follows, is a very melodic composition which borders on 8 minutes with a light and pastoral atmosphere, the addition of the flute reinforcing this feeling. Then come the two shortest tracks of the album with first of all, 'Elegant Vampires', more conventional, which served as video promotion of the album (see above), and which has a melody which s 'installs easily in your head, and then, 'Why Don't We Run' with new simple but very effective melodic lines in Spanish intonations brought by the melody but also by the short instrumental section using a trumpet. It is with 'Lifeboat' that we hold the centerpiece of the album, a long title of more than 17 minutes in multi-drawers typical of a sought-after and inventive progressive that alternates different atmospheres and that captivates the listener from the first to the last note. Then 'Soon But Not Today', of 12 minutes, ends the albumin a new progressive saga with a rhythmic and light first part then a calmer second in an atmosphere of musical comedy and which takes scale for a magnificent finale which can only make one think of a certain group of the 60s et.
In summary, it did not take long for the Americans of 'Pattern-Seeking Animals' to release a remarkable new album in a rich and inventive progressive with magnificent melodic lines and 'Prehensile Tales' is typically the genre of album that should appeal to fans of progressive music through the ages who should add it to their ideal music collection... | |
