THE SPIRIT OF AUTUMN PAST

"The Spirit Of Autumn Past" is the second studio album of Mostly Autumn and, like their debut "For All We Shared", it was also released in 1999. It's their only album to feature drummer Rob McNeil and their last album to feature violinist Bob Faulds and bassist Stuart Carver. It was also the first Mostly Autumn's album to feature multi- instrumentalist Troy Donockley as a guest musician, what would become common because he has after guested on many of their albums since. By the other hand, it was the first album of the band to feature Angela Goldthorpe as a full member of the group.

So, the line up on "The Spirit Of Autumn Past" is Bryan Josh (lead and backing vocals, lead, rhythm, acoustic and 12 string guitars and E-Bow), Heather Findlay (lead and backing vocals, acoustic and 12 string guitars, bodhran and tambourine), Iain Jennings (backing vocals, Hammond organ and keyboards), Liam Davison (backing vocals, rhythm, acoustic, slide and 12 string guitars), Angela Goldthorpe (flute, high and low whistles), Bob Faulds (violins and 5 string zeta violin), Stuart Carver (bass guitar) and Rob McNeil (drums). "The Spirit Of Autumn Past" has also the participation of Troy Donockley (Uilleann pipes) and Marissa Claughan (cello), as guest musicians.

"The Spirit Of Autumn Past" has thirteen tracks. The first track "Winter Mountain" written by B. Josh and R. Josh is a great and stunning opener for the album. This is a great driving hard rock song with a symphonic touch, an excellent riff and great guitar and keyboard works. The second track "This Great Blue Pearl" written by Josh is a nice and beautiful song with catchy chorus and Pink Floyd harmonies. It's a very slow ballad introduced by Hammond organ and with a nice guitar riff that features a superb guitar solo in Gilmour's vein. The third track "Pieces Of Love" written by Josh is a mellow ballad that shows the other face of the band. Fortunately, here we can hear the beautiful voice of Heather Findlay, which isn't the case on many times during the entire album. The fourth track "Please" written by Josh, Findlay and Jennings is another great song. It's a song with some powerful vocal harmonies, a great guitar work and a nice keyboard performance too. The fifth track "Evergreen" written by Josh and Findlay is one of the lengthiest songs on the album, and is one of the highlights of it too. It has all the ingredients of a true Mostly Autumn's track, strong and beautiful vocal harmonies, a slightly rockier tempo, the guitar style of David Gilmour and above all the unmistakable beautiful voice of Heather Findlay. The sixth track "Styhead Tarn" written by Josh is a song very different from the rest of the album. Despite being a nice and pleasant song to hear, it's a weaker song compared to the others songs, so far. The seventh track "Shindig" written by Faulds is the first true folk track on the album and represents a nice, rare and good musical moment on it. The absence of songs like this was possibly the main reason why Bob Faulds leave the band. The eighth track "Blakey Ridge/When Waters Meet" written by Josh and Faulds, despite be another good and nice song, represents the third consecutive less good song on the album. It's a very short instrumental track with nothing special to note. The ninth track "Underneath The Ice (Troubled Dreams)" written by Josh is another song with a strong appeal to David Gilmour's fans. Once more and despite be another good song it became a little bit repetitive and boring too. The tenth track "Through The Window" written by Josh is a song in the same vein of the previous song and is especially centred on Bryan's voice and acoustic guitar. The eleventh and twelfth tracks are the title track song "The Spirit Of The Autumn Past ? Part 1 and Part 2" written by Josh, Findlay and Jennings. It's the return to the high quality level of the most of the album. They're about nine minutes long and they must be heard together. This is the highlight of the album, a track with a wonderful vocal harmony and chorus, which represents one of the best pieces ever made by Mostly Autumn. The thirteenth and last track "The Gap Is Too Wide" written by Jennings is another brilliant piece of music. The beautiful voice of Heather and the fantastic guitar performance of Josh are absolutely brilliant and deserve be heard properly. "The Spirit Of The Autumn Past" and "The Gap Is Too Wide" are two brilliant endings to the album.

Conclusion: "The Spirit Of Autumn Past" represents another great and surprising album of Mostly Autumn. It was made in the same vein of their previous debut album "For All We Shared". Sincerely, I'm not sure which of the two albums I like most. In my humble opinion, on "For All We Shared" the music is purest and simplest and the final result was a very cohesive album despite the different musical influences on it. On "The Spirit Of The Autumn Past" the music is more mature and more complex, and despite being musically more compact, it's a less cohesive album because some lower quality of some of its tracks. The best tracks on the album are undoubtedly "Winter Mountain", "Please", "Evergreen" and especially "The Spirit Of Autumn Past" and "The Gap Is Too Wide". Anyway, I really think that "The Spirit Of Autumn Past" and "For All We Shared" must be listen together as a complement of each other as I like to do.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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