Member:
maribor
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by maribor)
Date:
11/10/2006
Format:
CD (Album)
I pity the fool!
That’s what you’d hear for 60 minutes if Mr. T put out an album. Imagine it with a techno or a rap beat underneath and it becomes quite a fetching prospect. You’re not sold? Good. Because this isn’t an album by Mr. T.
Thomas Thielen, or otherwise known as T, was a member of the German neo band Scythe until they disbanded. He wasn’t only a band member, he was the front man, the guitarist and he also played the occasional keyboards. Not another multi-instrumentalist, you might as well be saying to yourself. As if all the Neal Morse’s and Roine Stolt’s of this world weren’t bad enough, there’s this new guy who’s a minor league. Yawn! Nothing good could possibly come out of this, right? Wrong. When I chose this album to review, I was very fortunate. Most of the newer stuff out there just doesn’t do it for me. Apart from Marillion, IQ and a few other non-symphonic bands, I’m really not all that keen on newer artists. However, sometimes Lady Luck smiles down on you and you think that maybe there’s still some hope.
Where do I start with this album? The music? The lyrics? They’re both so good, it’s hard to choose. Usually, people listen to music and pay less attention to the lyrics, so I’ll start with music. I suppose you could describe his style as resembling H-era Marillion. In a way, the album reminds me of Marbles quite a bit, except that Voices is even more emotionally packed. The songs are full of wonderful melodies, catchy hooks (although I wouldn’t call it that because it would demean the music) and marvelous execution. Occasionally Thielen ventures into more hard rock waters, which gives a sort of Porcupine Tree feel, alongside the Marillion one. There’s not much soloing going on but it’s not sorely missed. There are plenty of interesting things going on to keep you interested. The melodies exchange rapidly and you almost wish they wouldn’t because some of the melodies are quite breathtaking and extremely passionate. It feels as if T is pouring his heart out with every second of the album, not only lyrically but with music as well. When the mood of the lyrics changes, so does the music and vice versa. It’s only logical after all, if the lyrics and music are so heavily connected that when lyrical patterns are repeated, so are the musical ones.
This is a concept album and as is the case with most concept albums, some melodies are used several times. But it’s not annoying because Thielen incorporates the polished old recipe of using the same melody and presenting it in a new way. Genesis had done it with The Lamb, IQ had done it with Subterranea, PFM with Storia,…I could go on all day. Another amazing thing about this album is that T plays all the instruments himself. I was amazed to find out that the drums on this album aren’t real. He programmed them so well, that you won’t notice a difference. Perhaps someone more versed in such matters will hear it but not me. I find this to be the problem with many new artists I’ve reviewed. They do a bad job at drum programming. T did a wonderful job. And the result is visible. Although the music would still be good without it with all the wonderful guitar and keyboard passages, it’s still worth to go that extra mile. The sound on the record is close to neo, so fans of the genre don’t hesitate. However, there are also plenty of vintage keyboards sampled, such as the Hammond organ, mellotron and piano and all are done very tastefully. The fake strings are also done very well. This guy must be a perfectionist! With so little money, he was able to create authentic drums, strings and vintage keyboards. It pays to put in a bit of extra work. It makes all the difference.
I think that the lyrics are really what separate Thomas Thielen from the rest. One would think that since he’s a German writing lyrics in English that these would be awful, as is the case with many bands from countries where the official language isn’t English (and unfortunately many bands from English-speaking countries as well). This man writes some of the best lyrics I’ve ever laid eyes on. I know that a lot of people don’t care about the words in music, but sometimes they can make or break an album (Love Beach, anybody?). In Voices they add another dimension to the haunting music. Thielen tells a story of voices within us all, but he tells it from the perspective of different people of various backgrounds. There’s the man, whose love moves out of the street and he hears. He hears the silence within him, the emptiness. There’s the serial killer, who wants to feel the happiness of a girl but he takes it a bit too literally, he wants to feel her warmth so he kills her to see what she feels like inside.
“And the smile she smiled that night so bright
You had to feel it from inside snowblind
Her summer painted on her thighs
Her hair the sweetness of blue skies…”
The lyrics can be quite disturbing, as you can see. But sometimes they can be a bit less violent but for the most part, the atmosphere is quite dark. So if you’re a fan of dark albums, this may be for you. Thielen sings his wonderful lyrics with a passionate voice that reminds of Steve Hogarth on occasion (though less nasal), at other times of Steven Wilson or even David Bowie. In any case, very pleasant and versatile.
This is a treasure of an album. I discover new thing about it whenever I listened to it, mostly concerning the lyrics, which are highly metaphoric and quite tricky to decipher. But that’s how I like them. My interpretations of some of the words may be wrong but everyone put his/her own twist on things, right? For me, this is definitely the album of the year 2006. Best tracks? It’s hard to choose them because it’s a concept album but the ones I look forward to most when I listen to this are: “August in me”, “Still”, “Septic” (the only instrumental), “After”, “Forget me now”.
I pity the fool who doesn’t get this album!
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