MEN SINGING

I wasn't aware of Henry Fool first time around when their debut surfaced around 2001. I have later known about Tim Bowness from his involvement with Steven Wilson in No-Man, the project Steven Wilson started in the late '80s that he was to take seriously and to have Porcupine Tree become the joke project. Ironic how the joke project became his most recognized and (eventually) commercially successful outfit.

About 12 years pass and a new Henry Fool album. Tim Bowness gets some help from Jarrod Goslin of I Monster, Skywatchers, and Regal Worm, and none other than Phil Manzanera, amongst others. Given the fame and success of Roxy Music, it's a miracle someone on the level of Phi Manzanera would appear on a Henry Fool CD. While their debut had many vocal cuts, this one is an all-instrumental eclectic prog album. This is a wonderful prog rock CD all the way, with a more retro '70s vibe, helps that a '70s rock veteran helps, not to mention Jarrod Gosling's love of all things analog, including the Mellotron, which he uses rather nicely. It's a bit hard to describe this. Some of my favorite parts include the flute on "Everyone From Sweden", the nice spacy synth atmosphere of "Man Singing". "My Favourite Zombie Dream" has a bit of a King Crimson thing going on, same for "Chic Hippo" but there's also a trumpet solo. Fans of crossover prog might stick with the debut CD, but those into eclectic prog should give Men Singing a try. I also love that this CD has none of that annoying "loudness wars". I do not like have the instruments being mixed in so loud that they threaten to drown themselves out (metal acts are most guilty of that, but I realize that metal groups always wanted to be as loud of possible, and even neo-prog acts, just to sound more "contemporary"). You get none of that here, making it easy on the ears. Another thing I greatly appreciate is the CD is not much longer than 40 minutes, enough to fit on a single LP (it's also available on LP), so sitting through it is no problem. I am glad that in 2013 that prog like this is still being made.