THE FINAL BREATH BEFORE NOVEMBER

Looking at the reviews so far, it would seem "the cards are all stacked" against me indeed- it's good that people enjoy this album, but I fail to see it. "The Final Breath Before November" is not far away from what a team of songwriters might produce if asked to create the prog version of an adult contemporary album, though of course it's too dark for that.

I should clarify- in general there's nothing actively disagreeable about the sounds Edison's Children produce here (except the vocals, which are as whiny and cat-like as I've ever heard) , it floats along fairly pleasantly, mostly quite dark, spacey and atmospheric. But that's just it- I don't think I heard anything remotely interesting happen in the entire 80 minutes (which is another problem- the length compared to the amount of material contained within). It's got that kind of faux-emotional attempt at tugging your heart-strings that afflicts so many retro-symph albums (though this effort is considerably less technical than most albums of that style), but which uses such corny progressions and techniques to do so that it really does come off as a cheap trick.

This review may seem harsh, but I really expected something better given the musicians involved and the other reviews. If you want some background music, then this will do the job- but in my view, the only thing worse than a bad album is a boring album.