FANFARE & FANTASY

This new release from Comedy Of Errors is another terrific, high-quality dose of their melodic and engaging music and a worthy followup to 2011's excellent "Disobey". Seemingly always walking the line between 'neo' and 'symphonic', this is one occasion where the listener can discard the notion of such silly titles and simply enjoy the music for what it is: damn good. Indeed, this is one of the bands who manage not to sound like any one particular influence of theirs, rather a combination of many or all of them. It helps that singer Joe Cairney has a distinct voice that is effectively furthers the uniqueness of the band's own sound.

As with "Disobey", "Fanfare & Fantasy" treats the listener to a variety of moods with their one-two-three knockout punch of stellar music, likeable, singalong vocals and a great-sounding record (let's be honest - a lot of bands in this genre unfortunately fall flat on at least one of those criteria). Vocal sections give way to dramatic and appealing synth lines and guitar solos, giving the music an 'epic' quality (I hate to use a term that has become overused), and I don't mean the lengths of the songs (none of them hit the 10-minute mark). While I honestly appreciate every member of the band (and I do find my attention darting sonically between instruments), I must give credit to the impressive songwriting of keyboardist Jim Johnston.

"Fanfare & Fantasy" proves that "Disobey" was not a one-time thing - it also proves that COE can release an album that will immediately appeal to fans of the last one without essentially cloning themselves (another misfortune often seen these days). There's nothing on "Disobey" that sounds like "Time's Motet And Galliard", for example. This album plants the band squarely in the "Autobuy" category for me. And at a little more than an hour, it does not outstay its welcome - in fact, I was left wanting more when the disc stopped spinning. So I played it again! Well done, guys - it's another winner.