SONGS FROM A SOLITARY HOME

Song from a Solitary home

This album is one that hit me like a surprise or to say it honest, this band took me by surprise. I randomly went to a gig where they were the headliners, I had zero expectations nor had I ever heard a song.

I left the gig with their latest album Song from a Solitary home it is as you expected from the concert lively.

Well how is this album, whimsical is one word to describe it, but also complex and this band know how to play their instruments, not in a Gentle Giant way (no one is that btw), but they are in the same league when it comes to arrangement skills, song structure and playfulness as the prog giants of the 70s. They differ by their influence not only by 70s they also incorporate 80s alternative to minor degrees and a light metallic crunch and mindset (but they are not metal by any extent).

They include a lot of different elements to their music; they have a rumour to play circus/vaudeville type of rock, in that way that it is wild, happy and playful. Tom Waits is also heard clearly by the way the vocalist sings, he is not aWaits clone but uses a similar gruff/growling singing style. The interludes/solos by ether piano and guitar shows a hint of ElP and Yes influence. Specially in songs like Solitary Home, The Age of Paranoia and Adville. Genre styles in their music is Jazz, avant-garde, symphonic prog, pop rock and folk, all of the songs on the album are short to medium in length but that do not stop them at being complex and full of nice little details.

I will by heart say that this is a strong example of 00s progressive rock that don't lack the mindset of 70s prog but never sounds like copycats but more like classy interpreters.

Excellent inclusion to any progressive rock fan

Wow! Another album that came out of nowhere and completely caught me by surprise, Major Parkinson's second album, "Songs From a Solitary Home", is an excellent piece of music that will have a strong appeal to a lot of music listeners.

This album has a lot of strong songs, which is a distinction that I feel I must make because a lot of albums I listen to I rarely think about the individual tracks. Yet on this album, while it does sound best listening from start to end, I feel you can safely listen to any song on it's own and have a satisfying experience with it.

The music is largely based around the vocals, and Major Parkinson is one of the bands that pulls this off very well. Jon Ivar Kollbotn's voice has a very pleasant emotive aspect to it that in a way reminds me of Rikard Sjoblom of Beardfish; not so much for the sound of his voice (they are rather different) but more how his singing adds a whole level of character to the music and seems to convey the mood he wants with ease.

The music is unabashedly catchy when it needs to be, but it can also be quite tender (as in Card Boxes, a song that, if my interpretation is correct, is about the death of the protagonists parents), and the band can also effortlessly switch from the catchy to the more emotional (as on Solitary Home).

The content of the lyrics on this album are almost all dark, but with a sense of humor about them that prevents the music from being too bleak. The lyrics are also quite good, expressing emotion while leaving the specifics of the events for the listener to piece together for themselves.

This is a vocal driven, song-based album, but alas, this is not music that the radio stations near me are likely to be playing (although damn, I wish they would!). In fact, I had to e-mail the band to even get a copy shipped to me, for there are no North American distributors selling this music. The other option of course is iTunes. This is a shame, because these guys are flat out amazing and need to be heard by a larger audience.