THE OPTIMIST

After three albums that treaded very similar musical territories, inevitably succumbing to the law of diminishing returns (We Are Here Because We Are Here/Weather Systems/Distant Satellites), with 2017's The Optimist Anathema finally changed direction and wrote an album that is a point of union between the band's output at the turn of the century (Judgment/A Fine Day to Exit/A Natural Disaster) and their most recent releases. The connections with A Fine Day to Exit are particularly strong, given that The Optimist is actually a continuation of the concept initiated on that album. A Fine Day to Exit revolved around the story of a man who, overwhelmed by life's pains, leaves his family and drives to the ocean, with the intention of committing suicide. As the album progresses, the man's inner struggles slowly starts to resolve as he finds inner strength to come back up from his demise. The Optimist brings this beautiful story of fall and rebirth to its conclusion, with the man leaving the beach that he had reached to end his life and traveling back to his family ? to start his life anew.

Needless to say, being a huge fan of A Fine Day to Exit ? which I consider the highest point in Anathema's career ?, I was super-excited when the band announced that The Optimist was a continuation of that album. I was also mildly anxious, though, because I didn't not really consider any of Anathema's latest three releases up to the level of their earlier catalogue, especially their "golden" period between 1998 and 2003. Fortunately, my concerns were unfounded. Although The Optimist does not reach the levels of A Fine Day to Exit (and, frankly, neither of Judgment or A Natural Disaster), it is nevertheless a strong album and probably the strongest that the band has released since they came back from their "recording hiatus" in 2010.

The strength of The Optimist does not lie so much in its individual tracks, but rather in the way the album flows throughout its 58 minutes. This is a crucial difference between The Optimist and the three previous albums the band released since 2010. Those albums contain individual tracks that are probably stronger than any of the songs on The Optimist (for example, "Thin Air", "Everything" "Untouchable Pt 1 and Pt 2", "The Storm Before The Calm"). But they also contain subpar tracks and songs that do not really fit with the rest of the album ("Get Off, Get Out" on We Are Here Because We Are Here; "You're Not Alone" on Distant Satellites). Those earlier albums are also fairly unbalanced, with a typically strong first half and a more tentative and faltering second half. The 11 songs on The Optimist perhaps cannot reach the heights of some of those earlier superb Anathema's tracks, but they are much more homogeneous in style and quality, and they fit much better with one another. As a result, the album feels more balanced and cohesive, and the listener does not have any impulse to use the "skip" button of their remote control ? which I am often tempted to do when I put on We Are Here Because We Are Here, Weather Systems and Distant Satellites. This is something I appreciate a lot in a full-length album, as I want a listening experience that gives me more than a simple collection of songs: I want the album to take me on a journey and leave me more than the sum of its parts. The Optimist succeeds in this where the previous three albums had failed.

As I mentioned earlier, musically The Optimist is a cross between the dark atmospheric metal the band produced in the late 90s / early 00s, and the cinematic prog/post rock of the more recent releases. The guitars are more present here compared to the most recent three albums, marking a welcome return to a sound with a tad more bite than on those albums. The Optimist is also darker (probably due to the subject matter), and the dose of big melodies and life-affirming lyrics is sensibly reduced relative to the previous three albums. I cannot hide the fact that I am actually very glad about this. I respect the band for choosing to wear their heart on their sleeves (and this is indeed one of Anathema's best qualities), but the positive vibes of the last three albums did not quite resonate with me as much as the dark melancholia of their previous catalogue. Melancholia seeps in again through the songs of The Optimist, and for this reason I feel a stronger connection with this album than any of the previous three.

The Optimist features some tasty strings arrangements, although the role of the orchestra is a little less prominent than on Distant Satellites or Weather Systems, probably due to the stronger role played by the guitars on The Optimist, or perhaps due to the different arrangements of new collaborator Paul Leonard-Morgan, who replaces Dave Stewart as orchestral arranger. The change of producer may have also contributed, with Tony Doogan (Mogwai; Belle & Sebastian) stepping in for Christer-André Cederberg (In the Woods?) who had produced the latest two albums.

On the other hand, there are also many points of similarity between this album and We Are Here Because We Are Here, Weather Systems and Distant Satellites. The electronic experiments of the latter are reprised on a number of tracks on The Optimist. Opening track "Leaving It Behind" is a clear example. More generally, The Optimist is the most electronic-oriented album in the band's whole discography, with beats and scratches surfacing at several points through the album. The switch of John Douglas from drumming to keyboards/programming (Daniel Cardoso now sitting behind the kit) has probably played a large role in this development. Another point of contact between The Optimist and the previous three albums is a songwriting style that privileges the use of dynamics and dramatic post-rock crescendo, escaping the logic of verse/chorus structures in favor of repeated piano or guitar loops that vary in intensity as the song progresses. Tracks like "Springfield" and "Wildfires" are great examples of this. However, on The Optimist we also find more traditional song structures, with alternation of verses and choruses, which the band tended to use on earlier albums. I think this variation in songrwriting approaches is actually a strength of the album, compared to the previous three releases that were packed with drawn-out post-rock structures to the point of spoiling a bit the listening experience.

I said earlier that the strength of the album does not lie as much on the individual tracks as on the whole flow of the album. Nevertheless, a few songs stand out, such as the beautiful elegiac "Endless Ways", which features a great solo spot by Lee Douglas (probably her best performance with Anathema, after the immortal "A Natural Disaster"). "San Francisco" is an engaging instrumental track mixing an obsessive piano loop with electronica: this is probably the most accomplished instrumental track Anathema has managed to write in their career. I am also very fond of the moody, Radiohead-esque "Can't Let Go" and the sultry jazz piece "Close Your Eyes", which again sees a Lee Douglas in great form.

Overall, The Optimist is a sort of rebirth for Anathema, after three albums that I found a bit too similar to one another, suggesting the terrifying prospect that the band might have started to run out of new ideas. The Optimist brings a breath of fresh air, taking inspiration from the band's past catalogue and merging together the dark melancholic rock of A Fine Day to Exit with the more recent progressive / post-rock inclinations of the band. Although The Optimist does not reach the level of masterpieces like A Fine Day to Exit or Judgment, it is certainly a welcome return to form for the band, and possibly their best record since A Natural Disaster.

[Originally posted on www.metal-archives.com]