A seamless sonic journey across terrain both bleak and beautiful.
In 2005, Red Sparowes released a truly transcendent album in At the Soundless Dawn. This, their third effort, finds them still attempting to top it. 2006’s Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun clearly wasn’t up to the task, and although they’ve had time aplenty to formulate a suitably epic response, it’s still not quite enough. Finding the elusive something to go one better than the perfectly formed …Dawn may in the end prove impossible. Maybe that’s just the way it’s meant to be
In its own right, The Fear… is an impressive piece of work. As inevitable as comparisons with their previous creations are, they shouldn’t detract from what is by anyone else’s standards a major achievement. Post-rock is a decidedly nebulous genre, but Red Sparowes find themselves loosely aligned with the likes of Pelican and Isis (of whom guitarist Bryant Clifford Meyer is also a member). Atmospheric, evocative and often cerebral, it’s both the perfect soundtrack to and the antidote for the tumultuous times we live in.
Read the rest of this review on BBC CD reviews (Dutch)
Source: BBC Music