MOSTLY AUTUMN – Dressed In Voices (2014)

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Since forming back in 1996, British progsters MOSTLY AUTUMN have garnered themselves a name for their relentless touring schedule and solid recordings. “Dressed In Voices” is their fresh album and the third to feature the angelical lead vocals of Olivia Sparnenn.
If you know Mostly Autumn from their previous works, that is classic prog with Celtic influences, some folk lyrics and spacey atmospherics, you will be surprised by “Dressed In Voices”; this new album is quite full of heavy, dark, gloomy songs and offers a little in the way of comfort.
But then that’s the very reason it could be this enduring prog band’s most complete work so far.

I always liked Mostly Autumn’s music, filled with the really interesting guitar patterns and sound of Bryan Josh augmented by the keyboard finesse of Iain Jennings. After being voted Best Band of 2012 in the Classic Rock Society poll and following their Best Band, Best Live Act, Best Guitarist awards, Mostly Autumn surely deserve to be called ‘The best band you have never heard’.
But to be honest, the ‘folky prog’ parts on all their albums were a little boring to my ears. Well, no more on “Dressed In Voices”. This new record is focused on strong riffs and a quite blasting rhythm section contrasting Sparnenn’s sweet vocals.

In this band the musical palette is diverse and while they draw on influences from the golden age of seventies’ prog rock, they have developed their own unique sound and style that both captures some of the essence of that heady era and yet looks forward into the future. Even more on this “Dressed In Voices”.

Conceptually, this new album it’s about someone reviewing their like as they are at the point of dying, having just been shot by a rampaging maniac.
“I’m not dead, not alive” vocalist Olivia Sparnenn intones on “Running” purring everything into stark perspective. The gruesome subject is tackled from the angle of the death being a pointless, almost accidental one – wrong place, wrong time – but also sees incidents across this life cut short as offering nothing to suggest the central character has anything remarkable in his past.
Maybe what composer Bryan Josh is trying to tell us is that, ultimately, each person’s life is little more than a compound of trivialities. But those are personal experiences to each individual, and are therefore unique to that person, and cannot be dismissed as irrelevant.

Each track is thoughtfully created and presented, offering glimpses of a life unfolding, yet you can never escape the feeling that it’s all being played out in the shadow of that impending bullet. ‘Would you take it away’, sigh Sparnenn and Josh in the mournful unison on “First Day At School”.
What the ominous atmosphere allows the band to do is to get away from any temptation of being joyful for its own sake.
But, there’s still an uplifting quality to the music with the sense of the central figure not belonging anywhere. There’s a displacement that’s realised on “Home”, “The Library” and most tellingly on “Box Of Tears”.
In some ways, (and this is high praise indeed) the album reflects the storytelling technique used in the classic movie Sunset Boulevard, when the key character’s body is seen lying dead in a swimming pool at the start, and then he relates the back story leading to this demise. There, and here, everything inexorably converges to this climatic moment.

“Dressed In Voices” is a stunning, inventive piece of work lifting Mostly Autumn to a new stratum, all wrapped by, at times, heavy musical environment. It has so much variety and passion, both in the music and the narrative, that it takes a few bites to even begin to get to grips with the content.
It’s like a movie waiting to happen, and the visual aspect of this tale is remarkably brought to the surface by the strong, elaborated musical construction.
More than anything, Mostly Autumn have set the bar extremely high for themselves, and this might be the start of a fresh season for them.
Highly Recommended.

01 – Saturday Night
02 – Not Yours to Take
03 – Running
04 – See You
05 – Home
06 – First Day at School
07 – Down by the River
08 – Skin on Skin
09 – The House on the Hill
10 – The Last Day
11 – Dressed in Voices
12 – The Library
13 – Footsteps
14 – Box of Tears

Bryan Josh – Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
Olivia Sparnenn – Lead Vocals, Percussion
Iain Jennings – Keyboards, Synths, Hammond Organ
Liam Davison – Guitars, Vocals
Andy Smith – Bass
Anne-Marie Helder – Guitars, Flute, Keyboards, Vocals
Alex Cromerty – Drums

BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/DRESSED-IN-VOICES-Mostly-Autumn/dp/B00JXU1EA8
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