Echolyn - The End Is Beautiful

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Echolyn - The End Is Beautiful

Artist:	Echolyn
Title:	The End Is Beautiful
Label:	self produced
Length(s):	55 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2005
Month of review:	[02/2006]

Line up

Christopher Buzby - keyboards, backing vocals, percussion, piano, horn arrangements
Brett Kull - guitars, lead and backing vocals, loops, samples
Paul Ramsey - drums, percussion, backing vocals
Ray Weston - guitar, piano, fender rhodes, samples, theremin, percussion, lead and backing vocals
Thomas E. Hyatt - bass, backing vocals
with
Mark Gallagher - alto sax and bari sax on 2,3 and 6
Eric Apelt - trumpet on 2, 3 and 6
Phil Kaufman - trombone on 2, 3 and 6

Tracks

1)	Georgia Pine	5.49
2)	Heavy Blue Miles	6.48
3)	Lovesick Morning	10.12
4)	Make Me Sway	5.22
5)	The End Is Beautiful	7.45
6)	So Ready	5.01
7)	Arc Of Descent	5.46
8)	Misery, Not Memory	9.03

Summary

After a great show in Zoetermeer, I not only brought my Echolyn collection up to date, but also managed to get Axiom Of Choice a review copy of their new album. Can they equal or even surpass Mei, is the question foremost in my mind.

The music

Georgia Pine opens relatively heavily. It is time to rock. The band does have the usual suspects lined up: good vocals, the complex vocal harmonies, plenty of keyboards (with quite a bit of meander). Variation is Echolyn's middle name, and in that sense they have not changed, in fact, after the relatively orchestral Mei and the Americana singersongwriter prog of Cowboy Poems Free, they have in fact returned more to the complexity of As The World. The song has some really excellent passage, such as the "There's no lie worth believing" part. In other parts, Echolyn grooves more than ever, but they also tend to meander more in these places.

Heavy Blue Miles shows us another typical Echolyn track, although the presence of a horn section is not usual for them, and it does give the music a bit more 'soul'. The melodies are good (as usual). Some of the horn parts take the band more into Cuneiform territory. An interesting combination of which we shall hear more this album.

Lovesick Morning is by comparison a very mellow track, with some accidental dreamy piano. Especially the chorus is pop like, reminding me of the Beatles. The trumpet brings in a laid back jazz feel, similar to say The Blue Nile. A slow track, that does not seem to get started properly, although the uplifting chorus and the tense guitar play that follows it does show the brilliance of the band. And the sax that comes in during one of the more up-beat parts reminds a bit of VDGG. Thus, the song may be a bit of a slow starter, but it does get going eventually.

On the other hand, Make Me Sway opens with modern electronics, followed by the rhythm section going against the grain. This is like the opener, a relatively heavy tracks, with the drummer hitting them hard, and plenty of riffing. The mellotron might seem to lighten the load somewhat. There is some tension building here, but I cannot escape the impression that again there is a bit too much instrumental noodling going on here. On The End Is Beautiful, the band does not take the easy approach as well. This song contains both elements of King Crimson (the guitarwork in places) and good old Gentle Giant (in some of the vocals), but for the rest it is pure Echolyn, alternating between highly energetic vocal harmonies and lower key simple vocals. The more uplifting parts are the best, imo.

So Ready is not a typical Echolyn song, it opens like a positive minded funky popsong, although it does have many of the typical Echolyn ingredients. This is also one of the songs that utilizes a horn section, which only adds to the groove, especially towards the end when they really start to swing. There is something very wall-of-sound seventies about this song.

Arc Of Descent is a moody ballad with good vocal melodies and backing vocals that power up the song. Misery, Not Memory brings back the quirkiness in the compositions of Echolyn, supported by good vocal melodies. There are strong elements of jazzrock here. The song has some powerful guitar parts, but also a introspective intermezzo with strings and spoken voices from movies. Of course, the song does power up, before we reach its end.

Conclusion

After the marvellous Mei, what do you do? You start a new direction. On this album, Echolyn does use all their well known elements: excellent vocals and harmony passages, varied compositions and plenty of dynamics. Add to this, I regard these elements as 'new', the more meandering character of some compositions, especially where it concerns, the advent of a horn section that adds groove and swing to three of the songs, and some modern electronics. On the whole I think Echolyn has lost some of its songoriented compactness and conciseness of Cowboy Poems Free, and the orchestrality of Mei is also gone. This way they keep every new Echolyn album something to be curious about.