Saturday 16 February 2019

The Sonic Dawn - Eclipse, album review

Yes, A State of Mind

The musical manifesto of opener Forever 1969 is fair enough both in intent and production, for example the ‘some say that we are out of our time’ and ‘times may change but the struggle remains the same’ as well as ‘’69 is another state of mind’, though this latter is exactly what all of what it is - yet having watched today a further episode from the new Star Trek where its ship Discovery has found itself in a parallel universe, we can all continue our hopeful imaginings.

I mention because on the band’s Bandcamp page it is stated,

Inspired by personal events and the current meltdown of the world as we know it, ‘Eclipse’ deals with a feeling of despair that many will recognize.

However, the music is more multicolored than ever, because the path to a better future starts out in the mind. Eclipse is a journey out of the darkness. Some might say a trip

and I am inclined to advise that they stick within the generally fine parameters of their authentic ’69 sounds, those of us who lived before and through 1969 knowing only too well where such social and political idealism got us.

That may sound quite pessimistic, and I am not inherently so, but I just think the musical nostalgia makes more sense than promoting a world-order long beyond recreating. Indeed, the overall range of songs are sweetly reminiscent of the sixties, in reverb and harmonies, and second Psychedelic Ranger hints at the rockier move at the turn of its original century.

I am inclined to such nostalgia and this record is an addition to that rather than a startling encapsulation. There is even a naïve pop-psyche sensibility to many of the songs, especially lyrics, suggesting earlier psychedelia pre-1969 – like Christiana that remind more of Clear Light than, say, a Jefferson Airplane – and taken with this expectation, it is an easy, pleasant listen.


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