DIURNAL

Adrian Jones finally comes out of COVID hibernation to revive his band of old--recruiting previous members Adrian O'Shaughnessy, Christian Bruin, and Brendan Eyre as well as importing some new members for the rhythm section.

1. "Birds, Insects & Kites" (3:39) a long, spaced-out intro in which drummer Lars Spijkervet gets plenty of time to show off his unique rhythmic style before and as Adrian's blistering slide guitar solos toward the end. It's great but I was kind of hoping for more. (8.875/10)

2. "The Veil" (1:48) guitar and key atmospherics. (4.375/5)

3. "Ghosted" (4:22) a slow and spacious old blues-based tune with teased out vocals and teased out guitar notes à la David Gilmour, Paul Speer, and Nick Barrett. At 3:40 the song seems to end but, no! Piano and weird "bird" noises drag it into a long descent into a vacuous black hole (at least, on the video). (8.875/10)

4. "Angel of Flies" (7:40) starts out for its first couple minutes sounding more like an homage to the Berlin School of Progressive Electronic music. At 2:10 the "glass shatters" as drums and guitar chords unleash a surprisingly spacious WHO-like rock motif over which Adrian "Aio" O'Shaughnessy sings in a voice that seems to come straight out of the great hairbands of the 1980s. His long hold of vowels is reminiscent of singers like Sammy Hagar, Bruce Dickinson, and David Coverdale. The searing guitar play over the wonderfully-inventive drum pattern helps elevate the song even further. Nice power piece. (13.5/15)

5. "In Remembrance" (2:00) well-spaced piano notes fill a large chamber before bowed bass and/or ebowed guitar notes are added to create a tension-filled discordant cinematic feel. (4.5/5)

6. "Frustration/Sedation" (11:55) a song of almost standard Bob Dylan/Rolling Stones sound that drags on and on without ever really doing much but drawing out a long "Free Falling"-like motif. The performances are all polished and sound great but they lack power, vigour, and effect. Then there is the recitation of a list of "-tion"s from Aio carried out over the last three minutes as the musicians try to amp things up (a little too late, IMO). Nice guitar soloing in the finally 90 seconds (again, a little too late). (21.25/25)

7. "Golden Hour" (1:30) piano and "distant" reverb guitar interlude. (4.375/5)

8. "Dusk" (10:48) spacious slow-build atmospheric music that makes me envision RY KOODER teaming up with NO- MAN to lay their modern interpretation of Glen Campbell's version of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman." Aio sings in drawn out notes with a sound and passion that makes him sound like AXL ROSE at his most blues-rockishness. The song builds, peaks, and reverts to spaciousness in which Aio Rose injects his long-note two syllable words to the end. Fair but not anything here that is very new or innovative. (17.5/20)

Total Time 43:42

An album of nice sounding music that with very mature and professional performances that just happens to be too spacious and monotonous, start to finish.

B/four stars; a very nice addition to any old time prog rocker's music collection.