STORMS OVER STILL WATER

Although this CD was released under the band's own label "Autumn Records", it was an album that was originally recorded for "Classic Rock Production", before the split occurred some months ago (and well documented on the band's web site). That being said, my reading between the lines is that Classic Rock Production tried to bring Mostly Autumn to a wider audience and by doing so altered their sound and led them to record shorter, more concised pieces. However, MA is made of very talented musicians, songwriters and vocalists who are capable of much more than they were doing under the management of Classic Rock Productions. The strength of their first four CDs (For All We Shared, The Spirit of Autumn Past, The Last Bright Light and Lord of the Rings) is their capacity to blend various styles of music into powerful, emotional rock music. This aspect has basically disapeared from Passengers and Storms Over Still Water. Regarding the latter, I should say that the talented MO returns with tracks 7 to 11 and the second half of the CD is extremely good ("Carpe Diem" is indeed a masterpiece). Therefore, while Mostly Autumn as a straight rock band is not bad at all, I would rank the first half of Storms Over Still Water as a "3" while I would rate the second half of the CD as a 4.5 (overall 3,5)

Now that the band has their own label, I believe that they now have full flexibility over their sound and this factor leads me to have great expectations for their next CD. There are so much possibilities when you incorporate violins, flutes, uilleann pipes, etc. in rock music, and given the talent of this band, they can continue to experiment and progress without repeating what they have accomplished with their first four CDs. From the perspective of a progressive rock fan, the future of MA does look brighter under their own label.