THE CRESTFALLEN

I have really struggled to review this album. It is one that I neither hate nor love; indeed, it is an album, about which I really struggle to form a lasting opinion. It has some beautiful guitar riffs - both gloomy (the end of "...And I Lust", for example) and "pretty" (as demonstrated by the entirety of "Everwake") and the vocals add variably to the atmosphere of the individual tracks.

Yet, even having read the lyrics and listened to the music multiply, I still struggle to see the point of this album, to see the basis of where it is going; it seems to be a concept album where the concept got lost and the music is not consistent enough for the concept just to be held within the instrumental. I am sure that many will disagree with me on this point but it is the closest I come to explaining how an album with beautiful guitar, interesting percussion and atmospheric vocals, somehow fails to impress me as an entirety.

This would of course be different if this were a live album. The lack of coherence would melt away as you would not anticipate the same cohesion between songs that you do on a studio album.

The music is good, "Everwake" is beautiful, and this album clearly demonstrates Anathema's musical talent. For this reason, I would give the album a 3. Everyone should listen to it at least once!