BLACKBOX

MAJOR PARKINSON were founded in Bergen, Norway in 2003, promptly winning a battle of the bands-like contest that same year. And they were off and running you could say. They released their debut in 2008, and "Blackbox" is album number four from 2017. I like the album cover which has a similar theme to the previous album cover art from 2014's "Twilight Cinema". In fact this band's music has been described by the band as "Somewhere in between pop and psychosis, sombre poetry and dark rock... with a fresh and unconventional approach to the art of writing music." Or some previous review quotes here as in "a poppy version of SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM" and "interesting poppy prog goth noir."

This is such an interesting album with Jon Ivor the leader and vocalist putting on a show as usual. The man has such character to his voice, and as I found out on the live "A Night At The Library" he gets into almost a trance-like state or emotional to the point of affecting his performance when he sings at times. This band triggers emotions in me like few other groups do. The song "Jonah" from that live album I just mentioned is off the charts emotionally. But I would say "Baseball" from this album gets close to that, and that's the longest track on here. That recurring line "I got his baseball" gets me, but beating that is "Before The Helmets". That song has Jon playing piano and singing with that rich, deep voice. So emotional. But, yes a lot of buts here, but my absolute favourite on here has to be "Isabel-A Report To An Academy". This is an epic track almost 10 minutes long with some huge highs on it.

How about "Strawberry Suicide" with the words late "I have something to tell you but I haven't found the words."Madelline Crumbles" sounds like an 80's tune while the opener "Lover, Lower Me Down!" sets the tone for the whole album, and it's another favourite. I'm a pretty big fan of "Blackbox" and the live "A Night At The Library" which is my favourite from them recorded to a virtual audience during lockdown. Now having said that their latest "Valesa- Chapter I: Velvet Prison" from 2022 was barely 3 stars as they went too far in my opinion to that commercial sound. Jon Ivor called it "Synth anthems set in a disco of nuclear anxiety." A very 80's sounding album with the added bonus of disco sounds. Yikes! I'll stick with this one which comes across as a movie soundtrack.

Such a cool album this one, headphone music, and a solid 4 stars of course.