YOU'LL BE MINE

At some point during the year gap that followed the lovably slapdash "The Indefinite State of Matter", during which guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Jerzy Antczak recorded two "solo" works, two long time members departed and two early contributors were welcomed back. Original vocalist Anna Batko's sultry sway hasn't diminished in 2 decades, not to take anything away from Katarzyna Sobkowicz-Malec who conducted herself mightily during that period. While both have buttressed the ALBION canon, the vision of the group has always been far more panoramic than "prog band with a female singer", and here it's Jerzy who delivers in the clutch. While his expressive and melodic guitars predominate, he proves no slouch on the keys, which subsidize the textures we have long come to anticipate from ALBION.

From the first bars of "Call it a Sin", reminiscent of fellow Poles BELIEVE, and its amorphous transition to the sweetly strummed and appropriately named "Lullaby", my attention was seized for the duration. This is a dark and at times doleful record in all the best ways but with luminescent moments that seem to bubble up from the spirit of its participants, such as on the paradoxically upbeat "Lady Death". It revels in transitions from near metal riffs to hypnotic passages in which keys and Rafał Paszcz's devotional percussion induce a sense that even "Hell" affords its own redemption. I'd like to think that the title's meaning is more metaphysical than physical, and more listener than individual focused, because, if so, I can attest that "You''ll be Mine" is a direct hit.