DARK SHADOWS

Although it has some minor flaws, this is one of the most interesting albums I've ever come across. The far-from-professional production and recording quality doesn't take away much from the album's magic, actually it adds very much to the atmosphere, you can feel how underground they are just by the sound quality. As if you needed that...

The album starts off with "South Texas" and the mind-blowing sound of Miller's autoharp. Not that you think "man this guy is incredible with the autoharp", of course it's more of "wow, they use an autoharp as a main instrument". This is not the only thing unique about Cold Sun, but it is by far the most unique. Every time I listen to the record, I think about the autoharp and how well it fits in with their sound. Every time I wonder if I should learn to play the autoharp...

Anyway, "South Texas" is a nice song, with neat, dark lyrics and melodies. It's dark psychedelia written as a progressive song.

"Twisted Flower"... first of all, what a great song name! This one gets even better, with better lyrics and melodies. I just completely love the part where another vocal melody kicks in at the words "yes I recieved the calls as they float around..." or whatever they are singing... I really need to find myself a lyric sheet.

"Here in the Year" is perhaps still my favorite song off the album, a bit longer than the first two and more developed I guess. It also weeds out non-fanatics while repeating the phrase "I think we're gonna see, television some day soon" in different forms. I do love the way that part ends with though. "And you'll be on television someday soon, locked behind the glass in my room". There are some GREAT lyrics here... you're just not allowed to miss it.

"For Ever" starts off great with an incredible chord progression (no idea what chord progression, it just sounds good to my ears, could be 1-5-4 for all my ears can tell), melody and lyrics. However, the part repeating "where does he come from?" is just too long, it's like yes I know it's psychedelic music but seriously... All in all a great song though.

"See What You Cause" is also a nice song, not as good as "Here in the Year" or "Twisted Flower" but it works well. It does pale in comparison with what's to come though.

"Fall" is my other pick for a favorite song. It has some of the greatest lyrics I've ever heard, mixed up with average lyrics I guess but still. I'm only guessing at the lyrics here but if he really sings "Once I was a drunken mass of mynn, at the garden wall, now I'm a dancing prince of light, who knows no fear at all" then those are some incredible lyrics! Also, I have some unexplained complete love for the line "Sing a song for life, in the middle of imagined night". It just... sums up what their music is all about in such a surreal and psychedelic way... It's simply perfect.

I haven't even mentioned anything else about "Fall" other than the lyrics... the song goes through many different stages and is overall much more well-written and arranged than the others (except for "Here In the Year" I guess). There are some incredible guitar solos, I just love the feedback sound they get on this record as well, it's simply mindblowing!

Finally, we have "Ra-Ma", also a longer extremely well-written piece. It has a great part near the beginning which is very defining for the whole band, when the song after a slow, meandering intro changes tempo drastically and goes into a fast, almost hard-rock like beat with incredible lyrics. More accurately, I BELIEVE those are great lyrics, I can't pick up much but fragments so they won't make any sense here, but they still leave an impression, to put it mildly.

All in all, this is not really an album that can be described. It is very unique and interesting, and is well worth 4 stars even though it is obviously a debut album by some very talented aspiring musicians, not an ambitious masterpiece by professional artists with years of experience in the music business. However, what they lack in professionalism they balance out with their unique style and lots of emotion. I wish they could have got a decent record deal, these guys could have blown bands like Soft Machine away ten times over if they had got the chance.