The Comet Is Coming, The Afterlife, Album Review
The Comet Is Coming
The Afterlife
Album Review
The way music is produced and release has changed drastically over recent years. What used to be an orderly system of releasing an album maybe once every three years, has transformed into the extremely fast-paced environment that is the modern music industry.
In order for newer artists especially to stay in the minds of listeners, most feel the need to be constantly releasing music, with some of them even releasing more than one project in the same year. A good example of an artist who has done so this year, is none other than electro-jazz trio; The Comet Is Coming.
I first discovered this band back in early April, when listening to their newest album at the time; Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, which was released towards the end of March. To this day, I still love this album, and you will be able to find out where it ranks at the end of the year.
But despite releasing such a solid project, The Comet Is Coming was far from finished. I was thrilled to discover that one of my favourite artists I've discovered this year, has released yet another project, that being their new newest record, The Afterlife.
The Afterlife is considerably shorter than its predecessor, with a total of 6 songs and a runtime that clocks in at just over half an hour. In comparison to the 9 track, 45 minute album that came before, The Afterlife feels more like a collection of unreleased demos, rather than the "companion album" that it has been labelled as.
Unfortunately, the runtime is not the only factor which makes The Afterlife feel like a bunch of Lifeforce demos. I can appreciate that The Comet Is Coming were clearly going for a more ambient approach with this new album. However, this is ultimately what prevents me from enjoying it as much. It felt like the composition of each song was too carefully considered. And with this, a lot of the colourful and dynamic splendour found on Lifeforce, was ultimately lost.
Furthermore, one could argue that there are a few songs on this which are just "uneventful". In other words, there wasnt an awful lot happening musically, which leads to these sorts of tracks to sound like bog standard background music without much memorability at all. The biggest offenders of this are tracks such as the title track, and "The Softness Of The Present" (which I hope isn't suposed to be a sister track to the phenomenal "Blood Of The Past" from the last album). I actually found myself zoning out at this point on the album, as both tracks had such a loose and slippery grip on me that it was very easy for me to lose interest.
There are however, a few instances where the slower, more atmospheric nature of this album works quite well, particularly with the final track "The Seven Planetary Heavens", and the first track "All That Matters Is The Moments". but while I feel that there isn't any glaring problem with this first track, I do still wish that it carried more of the signature style that The Comet Is Coming have. To me, it sounds like more of a slow jam that Sons Of Kemet would craft, and while I'm still impressed with that band and their music, I much prefer the electronic surrealism that The Comet Is Coming harness. More of that, and this track would've been the best on the album.
Otherwise, the highlight of The Afterlife for me was the mid section, where we got the tracks "Lifeforce Part I" and "Lifeforce Part II". Part 1 serves as a marvellous and gorgeous buildup to part 2, which to me feels like the only track with a somewhat comparable energy to the last album. The downside is, that "Lifeforce Part II" was the only teaser track for this new album, and still remains my most enjoyed. As a result, the rest of the album felt quite underwhelming.
While The Afterlife was a decent effort in my eyes, I still came away from it feeling slightly disappointed. It simply doesn't hold a candle to the godly energy from the previous album.
This album was apparently created to be listened alongside Lifeforce. However, I would've appreciated this album far more if the band spent more time towards its creation and releasing it as an entirely different project, rather than one that hopelessly clings on to its predecessor, and ultimately come across as a rushed project.
Nonetheless, I would still recommend this album to those in need of some creative instrumental jazz. however, I strongly recommend listening to Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery first.
Thank you for reading,
Booth Boy
Comments
Post a Comment