HEART FULL OF SKY

"Heart Full Of Sky" is the seventh studio album of Mostly Autumn that was released in 2006. It's the only album of the band to feature the multi-instrumentalist Chris Johnson, at the time, and the first to feature Olivia Sparnenn as an official band's member. It's also their last album to feature Angela Gordon who left the band for personal reasons and Andrew Jennings who left Mostly Autumn, at the time, due to other commitments. This is a bit different work of them.

The line up on "Heart Full Of Sky" is Bryan Josh (lead vocals, lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars, bass guitars, piano, keyboards and drum programming), Heather Findlay (lead and backing vocals, 12 string acoustic guitars and percussion), Chris Johnson (lead and backing vocals, piano, keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, glockenspiel and drum programming), Liam Davison (slide guitars), Angela Gordon (backing vocals, flute, clarinet, piano and recorders), Olivia Sparnenn (backing vocals), Andy Smith (bass guitars) and Andrew Jennings (drums). The album had also the participation of Troy Donockley (Uilleann pipes and low whistle), Peter Knight (backing vocals and violin), David Moore (Hammond organ) and Anne-Marie Helder, Roger Newport and Mark Gordon (backing vocals), as guest musicians.

I must say that I'm reviewing the normal CD Version and not the 2 CD limited version. "Heart Full Of Sky" has eleven tracks. The first track "Fading Colours" written by Josh is a wonderful track, very powerful and full of great vocal harmonies and with a wonderful job by all band's members. This is the great highlight of the album and one of the best compositions ever made by the band, until now. The second track "Half A World" written by Findlay is a very beautiful song in the typical and traditional line of many Mostly Autumn's songs. It's a wonderful acoustic ballad beautifully sung by Heather and with a magnificent guitar solo. The third track "Pocket Watch" written by Josh is a less catchy song and less good than the previous two. It's a nice rock song very well performed that flows in a medium tempo with its roots on the influence of the traditional style of the band. The fourth track "Blue Light" written by Johnson is another extremely beautiful ballad once more superiorly sung by Heather. It's a very good melancholic composition with nice keyboards, gentle guitar and good flute work. This is a song that reminds me the pop rock folk band The Corrs. The fifth track "Walk With A Storm" written by Josh is a slow rock song with heavy guitar performance and nice flute work. It's a harmonious song with good lyrics and melody, magnificently sung by Josh and Findlay, as a duet. This is probably the darker song on the album and one of its highlights. The sixth track "Find The Sun" written by Josh and Findlay is another song with some dark atmosphere that begins with thunderstorms and features a dramatic violin performance and a classic guitar work. This is another dreaming song with great melody and musicianship. The seventh track "Ghost" written by Josh is another song that begins with a mysterious dark atmosphere but that turns suddenly into a great dense musical ambient very well supported by a powerful choral work. Josh sings the lead parts and Heather sings the choral parts. The eighth track "Broken" written by Josh and Findlay is a nice and pretty good song very sad, sentimental and melancholic only performed by the voice of Heather and a lonely piano. The ninth track "Silver Glass" written by Johnson is a wonderful song with a catchy melody and a mellow dark musical atmosphere. The song opens with the voice of Johnson very well accompanied by piano and acoustic work, which flows beautifully until the end. The tenth track "Further From Home" written by Josh has a Pink Floyd's melancholic opening where the guitar of Josh sounds like Gilmour as never sounded. Suddenly the song explodes with the same melody heard earlier on the opening track, giving us the feeling that we are in presence of "Fading Colours - Part 2". This would be the perfect way to close the album. The eleventh and last track "Dreaming" written by Josh is the lengthiest track on the album and is another powerful song with lots of tempo and time musical changes. It's an excellent rock song that moves from the mellow to high energetic parts. It's a song with great vocal performance and heavy guitar riffs that shows the other side of Josh.

Conclusion: "Heart Full Of Sky" is, without any doubt, a great album from a great band. Who knows very well, like me, the musical career of this great band, knows that Mostly Autumn has made a great musical progress since the band was founded. And this album is no more than the continuity of a great musical career. It's true that "Heart Full Of Sky" isn't probably their best musical effort. I think the best is "The Last Bright Light". However, I'm perfectly convinced that it was very close of being a masterpiece and that only failed by some few details. This is a band at the top of their game with first class musicianship, singing, song writing and production. The music has depth and diversity and the delivery is assured and confident. So, "Heart Full Of Sky" is the darkest and most symphonic Mostly Autumn's album, until now. The band departed from the Celtic folk influences and had moved to the symphonic rock, which isn't fatally a bad thing.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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