THE TANGENT – To Follow Polaris (2024) *HQ*
”To Follow Polaris” is a new “full on” Progressive Rock album by THE TANGENT. That’s not necessarily a surprise… that’s what the band are known for. But at the same time, it’s something else too. In a year when members of The Tangent could be seen onstage all over the world with Steve Hackett, Soft Machine, Karnataka, David Cross, It Bites, Cyan and others, it became clear that there was not going to be time to get together for anything more than one gig in April 2023.
So the band agreed that leader/main writer Andy Tillison would keep the material coming and would make an album by The Tangent entirely alone. It would still be The Tangent. For One.
And ”To Follow Polaris” is pure THE TANGENT, that meaning progressive rock with melody, at places intricate but always accessible, spiced with a couple of lite-prog / rock&pop songs.
”To Follow Polaris” doesn’t sound like a DIY album. It sounds rich and full – Tillison’s keyboards are exemplary, as usual, but all the other instruments work extremely well, as if the band were crashing along together in the studio.
Everything that makes a Tangent album unique is there: the tasty instrumentation, the complicated yet accessible arrangements, the contrasts of high drama and gentle reflection, the exquisite sense of melody, the epic long song (Tillison has written and recorded more of these than any other prog artist).
First track ‘The North Sky’ opens with a lovely uplifting chorus as it suggests the fixed stability of the North or Pole Star – also known as Polaris – is something we could all agree on. The song titled ‘The Single’ is joyous prog-pop, an old track from Tillison’s pre-Tangent band Parallel Or 90 Degrees dusted off and updated. Yes, it’s about serious stuff, the relationship between the media and the music business, but it’s all wrapped up in a chorus that seems designed for a live audience singalong.
The album’s centre-piece is ‘The Anachronism’, a 21-minute condemnation of all forms of government that limit the public’s participation to putting an X on a piece of paper every four or five years, then expect us to shut up and go away while they fuel division, argument, suffering, war, poverty and racism.
There are moments that sound like Yes, others that channel Caravan and the Canterbury sound, some that draw from funkier, more commercial sources. Like most of his long songs, your attention is held throughout thanks to the twists and turns of the music, and not once will you be looking at your watch.
There’s a lot of progressive rock music about these days and the vast majority of it bores me to. But I’m never bored by Andy Tillison and The Tangent – they constantly delight me with their musical eclecticism, their melodic invention, their razor-tipped wit and their pin-sharp political jabs.
”To Follow Polaris” is another great The Tangent album, well-thought and executed.
Highly Recommended
01 – The North Sky
02 – A Like in the Darkness
03 – The Fine Line
04 – The Anachronism
05 – The Single
06 – The North Sky (Radio Edit)
Andy Tillison – all instrumentation & vocals
Pre order:
https://burningshed.com/the-tangent_to-follow-polaris_cd
