Inside the Rose

1. Doxxman5

   Mar 22, 2019

   10

   Despite a six year silence between albums, albeit a live album and some live performances, the band has lost none of it’s unique sound onDespite a six year silence between albums, albeit a live album and some live performances, the band has lost none of it’s unique sound on fourth album Inside the Rose. They continue to be hard to define, and this is their most psychedelic and laid-back sounding record yet. Each song feeds into the next in away thought sound well planned out but also sort of a stream of consciousness flow. Title track “Into the Rose” is a traditional sounding mood piece starting out, but halfway through pulls a new age influence a la Enya and shifts by losing its rhythm and form and endures a mournful coda. “Anti Gravity” and “Into the Fire” recall their masterwork Hidden, with intricate percussion by George Barnett and dreamy vocals, full of repeating harmonics and a sort of gothic rock n roll influence (sort of??). “Six” and “Lost Angel” are mainly instrumental, short interludes that allow the listener to contemplate the new cosmic formations they have been witnessed to.
   Still, those are the more easily comprehendible songs. “Infinity Vibraphones” as a hell of on opening track to the album, only revealing its bizarre melody upon multiple listens and we get the impression that the song could easily have been twice as long and been just as good. “Beyond Black Suns” is literally two songs happening at the same time, one sang by lead singer Jack Barnett and the other whispered by guest female vocalist, and the way the two songs collide throughout operatic interludes is a wonder to behold. Best of all there is “A-R-P”, perhaps the best song on here brings minimalist synthesizer work of Field of Reeds back to reveal the soul of the group is still lost in the ether; the elongated intro giving way to a pounding crescendo of yearning by the end. Only song that fails to resonate with me is the nursery rhyme “Where the Tress are On Fire”, as it meanders around without purpose a bit much for my tastes. In all, this is the shortest record by the group yet at only 40 minutes, which prevents us from being fatigued at all by the challenging ideas and leaves us wanting more. The art of These New Puritans remains complex and impenetrable, like all great works of art should be.… Expand

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2. hzy0421

   May 13, 2019

   9

   The opaque lyrics more like an instrument merging into the soundscape, the result is an otherworldly fantastic effort.

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