LIGHT UP

This is the seventh studio album from Solstice (if you don't count the Cropredy Set, which was a live-in-the-studio runthrough of a set previously played live), and the second to feature Jess Holland on lead vocals. Andy Glass, of course, has been in the band since beginning; Robin Phillips, Pete Hemsley, Jenny Newman, and Steven McDaniel round out the group in roles they've held since 2010's Spirit.

Next to Sia, this is pretty much business as usual for Solstice; whether that's a good thing depends on how much you enjoy their usual business. For those who want their prog rock to be raucous, highly complex, and very intricate, it may come across as sleepy and simplistic, but for my part I quite like their placid combination of a New Age sense of wonder and tranquility, prog musicianship, and just enough folk to glue the two halves of their sound together. As with Sia, it's another release from a long-serving band who haven't been all that prolific (they've put out seven albums in some 40 years or so), but are at least consistent.