EXPERIMENTS IN MASS APPEAL

I'd been looking forward to this release from Frost* for a while now and finally got myself a copy, and I was quite impressed. I will first say that this album is drastically different from Milliontown-the songs are all shorter and more concise, and as the band acknowledged there was supposedly a stronger focus on more emotional lyrics and tighter song structure, and it all shows through nicely. The fact that this is more of a band effort than merely Jem Godfrey teaming up with some colleagues is also very evident. Whereas Milliontown was very keyboard-oriented, Experiments in Mass Appeal has much more guitar in addition to that. Now, the music:

Experiments in Mass Appeal: This song has some really beautiful piano parts, and some very contrasting loud and soft bits. (Actually one thing I noticed about the album is that there are parts you have to turn up to hear properly followed by abrupt all-out loud sections. In a number of the songs, this is the case.) This is a strong opening song and has a strange sort of lilting flow to it that's really catchy. [4/5] Welcome to Nowhere: This is one of my favorites off this album. It's got some really strong, bombastic synth parts and powerful vocal parts, again with the contrasting loud and soft bit. There's no dearth of variety in dynamics on this album. The guitar solo in this song is really great, too. [4/5] Pocket Sun: Much more of a straightforward rock song, but this one is a real rocker. A bit tiresome but definitely worth the listen for a hard-rocking head-bobber. [3/5] Saline: In my first listen to this album this was an unexpected interlude. A softer track for the most part, this song is really quite pretty. [4/5] Dear Dead Days: The best song on the album in my opinion. After listening to this I was thinking to myself, There's no way that was only 7 minutes of music... This song goes all sorts of places in a small space and all the melodies are incredible. It's a powerful, epic song in just under 7 minutes and leads up perfectly to the next song. [5/5] Falling Down: An unexpected favorite as well. This song has some great strings and rhythm to it. You'll probably find yourself singing along to the chorus here without realizing it. [5/5] You/I: A short, sort of melancholy track that breaks up the second half of the album. Not much to say about this, not outstanding, not terrible, just a perfectly fine, very short track. [3/5] Toys: A very addictive beat in this song. It's a very odd song in many regards and it's just got an infectious rhythm and interesting instrumentation. One of my favorites. [5/5] Wonderland: This song sort of confused me in my first listen. I'll have to say it wasn't what i was expecting and I was a bit disappointed, but don't get me wrong-it's got some very good musical content. I was expecting a bit more of an epic (seeing as this song is far and away the longest on the album at over 15 minutes) but in reality this is sort of two songs in one and a couple soundscapes breaking them up. An interesting listen to say the least. [4/5]

Bottom line is, it's a great album well worth the money. It is very different from Milliontown, much less traditionally proggy but don't let people tell you it's not prog at all. For those accusing this of being pure pop, I challenge you to find me a pop band that sounds anything like Frost*. Total of the scores ÷ # tracks = 4.1 stars. A very strong release, and I look forward to the next!